Panty Raider
by Garasu
Summary: Hidden by the darkness of the night, concealed from the minds of all who would see him, a special man goes about a twisted purpose. These are the adventures of... the Panty Raider! Pg-13 for..what else? Ecchi humor! ^_^ [complete]
1. Because Every Hero Needs an Arch Nemesis...

_Neon Genesis Evangelion is property of Gainax and Anno-san. I do not wish to own anything so depressing. But I do so love to watch the series, so I write fan-fic. Unfortunately, I have no monetary units to speak of so I would not make a good target. Gomen nasai, I do this for fun!_

****

Seishoku Garasu Studios Presents…

The darkness of the night was oppressive. There was no getting around that fact. The moon had long sunk below the distant horizon hours ago, bathing the city of Tokyo-3 in a tight black embrace that seemed to choke any who dared exit their light drenched houses at this ungodly hour. Yet, through the murky haze of the pre-dawn mist a dark figure emerged, moving as silently as the wind. Swathed in black as he was, the color that just happened to perfectly match the darkness enveloping the shadowy figure, the only indication that he was present at all was the mists that silently drew from him as he moved. 

Finally, after a few more minutes of creeping amongst the shadows, the figure moved in to the street, allowing for only a moments time the light of a nearby street light to illuminate his figure. At first guess, the stranger would appear to be a very short man, of perhaps early to middle teens with his perfectly sculpted face that was partially hidden behind a black mask that went with the outfit. But then, one would have to consider the current time and immediately dismiss that idea, because it was a school night. His body agreed with the earlier surmise, however, and bellied the age guess when it showed that beneath the tight black pants and the matching shirt was a scrawny body that seemed to be only able to support itself.

Should anyone have been watching the young man in that street light that night, they would only have caught a glimpse of his figure in the light. For as soon as he was done judging the building that was in front of him and then took a quick glance at a piece of paper drawn from a side pocket he stepped back into the comforting darkness to disappear from the eyes once again.

****

An Original Fan-Fic by Garasu…

As the small sign placed in front of the doorway confirmed, this building was indeed the address that had been scrawled in the small piece of paper the street light was kind enough to illuminate. The young man drew an oblong gun shaped object from the backpack that was strapped tightly behind him and aimed it with careful ease towards the roof of the building. A muffled explosion of sound and a few seconds was all that was needed before the figure could test the rope attached to the grappling hook and begin to scramble up the knotted length with a graceful speed that certainly did not agree with his scrawny body.

In a matter of minutes, the human spider was able to climb a ten story apartment building with nothing but a thin line of black rope. Soon he was retrieving the line one arm length at a time as he grimly gazed the distance to his next amazing feat of gymnastics. The small porch that was to be his goal was only three stories below him and off center of the main façade of the complex, which was the reason that he had to climb all the way to the top before he could descend to its darkened platform. As quickly and quietly as he could, the young soon-to-be vandal tied his rope to an outcropping of stone and gave a good yank to test the knot. A quick nod and grim smile was all he did before backing to the edge and jumping over.

Who ever had gone rappelling down the side of a mountain in the blackness of night would definitely know what the shadowy figure was feeling for those precious few seconds of free fall before the rope went tight under his hands. The grim smile widened as he realized that the distance that he judged from the roof was quite accurate for the pitch blackness of the night and he let go of the rope, only to drop a few feet and land on the target porch with the softest of noises.

The young woman sleeping soundly within the room next to the twin glass doors heard nothing as a wire was slid in between the doors and unhitched the simple locking mechanism. Moments later, the glass slipped soundlessly open and allowed the black swathed figure to enter the apartment unencumbered. The young man couldn't help but give a small stare at the sleeping beauty in front of him, clothed in what only appeared to be the white cotton sheets of her futon and a thin, flimsy sleeping robe. Her brown hair was cutely tossed over the side of the pillow and then swept carelessly away along the ground, the result of one too many turns in her sleep. Her alabaster skin positively glowed even with almost no light, and the sleeping robe was parted halfway down, giving the intruded a tantalizing view to the two round pieces of flesh that were hidden by the green material.

Silently, the figure sighed and shook his head. Business was business, and while the beauty of the young woman was quite fetching, he had a job to do. So with another shake of his head, he moved with practiced ease towards a drawer on the opposite side of the room. According to his information, and not to mention quite a bit of experience in these matters, the drawer that he was searching for was the top one. With an ever-widening grin, the figure opened the drawer to find the treasure he sought behind the piece of wood.

Quick as a flash he found the piece of cloth that he was searching for and resealed the drawer. Within moments the glass doors were once again shut and locked and the young man was quickly ascending the building again.

"Heh heh, that was all too easy." The figure chuckled and stuffed the prized piece of cloth in his backpack before retrieving his rope and disappearing down the side of the building again. This time heading for the street and the welcoming distance from the building, not to mention his own bed, from which he had been missing for far too long.

****

Panty Raider:

Episode 1: Because every "hero" needs an arch nemesis.

Few things in life are ever as reliable as the sun. The giver of life and energy to the pitiful sized blue planet that was caught within its mighty gravitational pull, and this morning was certainly not any different from any other. The welcoming chirps of the cicadas thrummed their good morning to the slowly wakening city, spreading their song further and further with every inch the golden light crept. Everywhere within the carefully clean limits of Tokyo-3 there showed evidence that life was once again returning from the dreary haze of night. 

Except, perhaps, for one small apartment building on the outskirts of town. Ensconced within the only occupied apartment on the east façade and tucked under his warm covers, Shinji Ikari doggedly tried to defy the law of nature as he fought for every ounce of sleep he could. The young evangelion pilot certainly felt that he was within his rights to take an extra ten minutes of snooze time. After all, wasn't he the savior of mankind no less than four times within the past few months? And that was only counting the times that he had killed an angel by himself. If he included the times when he was assisted by his fellow pilots the number certainly would have accounted for some well deserved rest. Unfortunately, as most logical thoughts his brain had, they were violently disagreed with by a certain someone. A certain red-headed someone, who was the bane of his existence, the scourge of his waking hours – and certainly the star of not too few **lovely** dreams. The very same certain someone who was now casting a sinister shadow over his sleeping form.

"BAKA-SHINJI, WAKE UP!!!!"

Poor Shinji Ikari never stood a chance in hell.

"Arghhh! I'm up! I'm up!" The young man yelled, falling out of his bed with a satisfying thump. 

Asuka Langly Sohryu, for all her trouble was very well rewarded. "And let that be a lesson to you, Baka-kun." She smiled evilly, leaning over her roommate's cringing form, who was still rubbing his head from the short fall. "No one and I mean **no one,** sleeps in when they have more important things to do. Like make breakfast and ensure that this starving beauty," Asuka thumbed her ample chest importantly, "has a proper meal for school."

Shinji, for all his nice dreams of the woman who was now beginning to retreat back outside of his room, glared at the object of his dreamy desire with something very close to spite. Then, when he was sure that the red headed devil was out of site, an evil grin crawled across his fate. The perfect revenge was at hand.

To his everlasting credit, Shinji managed to keep a straight face the entire morning as he addressed each and every one of his moody roommate's complaints calmly and rationally. Of course, calmly and rationally for Shinji meant an entire morning of apologizing for waking up so late and being late to exit from the bathroom, not to mention being late to start breakfast. Fortunately, however, everything was able to be done within a reasonable amount of time and soon the pair of youngsters were off to school, having barely said good morning to the late rising Misato Katsuragi on their way out the door. 

"Geeze, Baka, what's with you this morning?" Asuka asked, noticing that her walking partner had just covered a yawn for the tenth time since they left for school that morning. "You went to bed even earlier than I did and yet you're still tired?"

"Oh, nothing I suppose. I guess I just didn't sleep to well last night." Shinji politely covered a yawn again and continued to stare at the ground directly in front of him, completely missing the slightly miffed look his red-headed partner gave him.

"Yeah, I bet you were up all night dreaming your little hentai dreams, weren't you?" Asuka shot back. Then she smiled satisfactorily as Shinji promptly blushed furiously. It didn't even matter if the little baka **had** actually been dreaming about something naughty, all it would take from her was a few simple words and he was putty in her hands.

"No!" Shinji shook his head violently, and then lowered his voice after Asuka gave him a quelling glare. "No, that's not it at all."

"Whatever, baka-hentai." Asuka couldn't resist that final shot as they arrived at the gates of the school and entered. Shinji sighed in relief when the temperamental German spotted her friend, Hikari, and ran off to join her instead, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Hours later, Shinji sighed again as his professor began to draw upon his knowledge of second impact to regal the class with a compare and contrast of the socio-political structure of the pre-impact governments versus the Unified Nations government of the post-impact world. This was about the time that many others in the class began to drift off into their own blissful thoughts to occupy the half an hour until lunch. Shinji was, in fact, just about ready to the same when a strange barely audible buzz came from his back pack.

__

Great, he thought with a little more spite than he intended. _Another job more than likely, though it does look like my reputation is beginning to do the advertising work for me. _The young EVA pilot spared a grim smile for that fact before discreetly pressing a button on his laptop. Wonderful little program his friend, Kensuke, gave to him. Though Shinji could hardly imagine the reaction the young man would have for its use. It allowed him to synchronize his palm top with the school laptop in order to access the outside world wide network without the hassles of the school firewall all without even lifting the small device that Misato had given him for his last birthday out of his bag.

Shinji brought himself back to the computer in front of him when a remote messaging terminal popped onto his screen. Then he noticed the messaging terminal ID. _Yup, looks like another job. I'll have that money in no time; this makes two jobs this week! _The young man let his personality settle to what he liked to call his "Ikari Business Mode" as he watched the message pop up.

riakfanYou are him, I assume?

Shinji regarded the message. Short and to the point… this didn't seem like the average hentai. He narrowed his eyes slightly and frowned as his fingers flew over the keyboard, typing his reply.

praiderYes.

__

Two can play this game. Shinji thought happily, yet outside his demeanor remained cool and professional. In fact, if any of the other EVA pilots had been watching him at that moment, they would have swore that in Shinji's place sat a shaved, specless, Gendo.

riakfan Excellent, I have a job for you. It needs to be handled…with the utmost haste.

Shinji raised his eyebrows fractionally at that last statement. A man in a rush. Must be something important. _Well, if it's that important, then my fee just doubled._ Shinji thought with glee, then typed out the message that he felt would be most appropriate for the situation.

praider Haste equals…quality assurances. I am a very busy man.

riakfan Understood. You shall be justly compensated for your time, over and above what I believe to be your normal fee structure.

Shinji smiled a little Gendo smile. Those around him unconsciously noted the temperature of the room drop.

praider Excellent. I will mail you the data for the accounts once the job is completed. The drop off point will be sent upon verification of payment. Do you have the data available?

riakfan Of course. The address is attached in the following packet. The package I wish delivered is LF36a-b. Is that within your scope?

Shinji smiled. The man used his own preferred code, and yet he knew he had not done business with this man before. _Whoever this is certainly not the average Hentai. He's done his homework. _Shinji did not worry, however. His actions while apparently well known in certain circles were certainly not noteworthy enough for anyone of any authority to seek him out. He was incredibly discreet in his endeavors, and knew exactly what he could and could not do. _Well, father, at least you taught me something from our little meetings._

Shinji rapidly searched through the database of all the catalogues he had painstakingly memorized in order to make his job easier until he found the right object. _Hmm, scratch that, riakfan **is **a hentai. _Shinji sighed to himself. Sometimes it was almost pitiful the amount of business he got inside this "fortress against the angels." _I guess there's just a lot of people looking to occupy their time…though why they would occupy their time with this disgusting business I'll never guess. But far be it for me to complain about easy money._ _Oh well, lunch period is about ready to begin, should get this over with. _With his final thoughts and a quick verification that the received packed was, in fact, clean and legit, Shinji typed his final reply.

praider The package will be delivered by tomorrow. Good day.

With his final thought, Shinji didn't even wait to see if there would be a reply as the lunch bell rang. Silently, he closed his laptop and walked out of the room, a frown of concentration playing across his face. Certainly though, in his haste, he never noticed the curious stare from a person two rows back and one column over.

Asuka, for all that she pretended to be bored in class, was actually quite adept at picking out the moods and emotions of the class around her. Her keen blue eyes never missed anything, which was, generally, the reason why she was so adept at ripping insults at her fellow classmates. There was one person, however, that she never failed to watch from behind her pretense of lazy boredom. Perhaps, as most would assume, it was because he was her particular favorite target. Still others, almost pathetic in their number actually, would assume a romantic interest in the said target. Depending on her mood when asked, Asuka could go either way, or sometimes even both.

It was because of this intense scrutiny that the red head noticed the distinct change in Shinji's demeanor a half hour from the lunch bell. From her vantage point, she unfortunately couldn't see what the text was that he seemed to be typing across his screen and reading when replied to, but she could sense his mood darken immediately. Unconsciously, Asuka shivered when she noticed him do a fair impression Commander Ikari in one of his "good" moods. 

__

He does it too well, she thought once she finished rubbing her delicate white hands against her arms for added warmth. _It's just too damn scary. But I guess he is his father's son, no matter how he may deny it. Still, I wonder what caused him to imitate his dear father._ Asuka screwed her eyebrows together and continued watching the young pilot until he seemed to conclude his conversation just as the lunch bell rang. Her piercing gaze followed the young Ikari out the door before she grabbed her own lunch and followed the rest of the class. _I_'_d better keep an eye on that baka, just in case. This could be bad news, or at the very least good black mail material._ The latter thought put Asuka in an immediate good mood.

"So Shinji," Kensuke put in, coming into the conversation for the first time that afternoon. "How are you getting along with the she-witch?"

Shinji stopped suddenly and regarded his friend thoughtfully. They had just been discussing the various merits of each female in class, or at least he listened while Touji filled him in on the "juicy details," when Asuka was suddenly brought up. He really didn't know why they kept bringing the German girl up when they were discussing available girls, but he supposed that in the extreme sense, Asuka could be considered "available" if one also just happened to be a masochist. Then there was that other implication that his friend implied. The married couple thing. He hated the notion (as much as spending various nighttime pursuits with Asuka appealed to his inner self), that he was constantly teased about this, couldn't they find better targets?

"I…we're…I mean… we're fine." Shinji finally managed to bumble out, all the while blushing from the variety of images his imaginative brain supplied him with. In a moment, however, his attitude from earlier returned and he smiled a little evil smile. Much to the shock of his erstwhile companions "In fact, I'd say we're about to get real "hot" pretty soon.

Touji promptly dropped his lunch and Kensuke's mouth hit the floor as they both stared at their young companion.

"What do you…?" Touji's confused outburst was silenced by Shinji's finger in front of his face, in the universal signal for patience.

"5…4…3…2…1…0." Shinji counted down the seconds on his watch in the following silence. When his mouth uttered the word zero, he looked up and towards the tree that Hikari and Asuka often sat under during this period. Sure enough, the other two stooges looked over to where their friend was intently staring and got an immediate reward for their obedience.

"MEIN GOTT! BAKA-SHINJI YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!"

The pair watched in rapt fascination as the so-called red devil stood up suddenly and began coughing loudly, then ran off towards the school.

"Did I actually see fire coming from her mouth?" Touji asked, looking down at Shinji who all the while was smiling innocently. If he hadn't been looking directly at his friend he would have missed the young boy's soft comment.

"Looks like Devil Girl finally found her flame." Shinji sighed sadly and looked up at his friend's wide-eyed stares. "Oh, sorry. She just woke me up rather unpleasantly this morning. I'll make it up to her later." The young man said by way of explanation, then shrugged.

"Whatever, man. Just remind me not to get on your bad side," Touji commented, much to Kensuke's agreement. The rest of the lunch period was spent in silence as the three finished their food and two of the three stooges contemplated the sudden "new side" of their friend.

Despite the fact that he knew the red head deserved the small practical joke that he had played on her at lunch, Shinji still couldn't help feel bad nor worry immensely for his own safety as he watched her angry, jarring steps on the way back home from school. She hadn't even said a word to him yet, and it didn't look like she was about ready to start anytime soon, even for a simple insult.

__

Man, she can certainly hang on to anger for a long time, he thought as she added another huff to her movements and then stormed up into the elevator of their apartment building. Of course, with the mood that she was currently in, Shinji wisely chose to take the second elevator rather than risk close proximity to his dangerous roommate. In all likely hood she was probably just waiting for them to get out of the public spotlight before she exacted her revenge. To that thought, Shinji could only cringe. If it was something **Asuka **didn't want to do in public it probably meant something very bad and very painful for him.

Surprisingly, though, when he reached his destination the door to their shared apartment had already been unlocked and Asuka was nowhere to be seen. Shinji blinked as he regarded to seemingly empty apartment. This was new. Asuka not wanting to exact revenge for the humiliation that she had gone through at his hands? A quick glance down her side of her hall, however, revealed that she had already gone into her room and was very likely fuming to herself. Shinji just shook his head; at least this gave him time to prepare his make up present.

With that pleasant thought, the young man entered the kitchen and donned his favorite apron to begin preparing dinner. He was going to have to eat a bit early tonight anyway if he wanted to properly plan and execute the job tonight; though on the bad side it looked like he was going to miss some sleep once again. Shinji at least hoped he could have caught up at least a little bit before he was forced to go out again.

__

No such luck, I suppose. Shinji shook his head of those thoughts and lent his mind to more productive things, like making sure that the dinner he was now fixing didn't burn. It had to be absolutely perfect in order to have its proper effect.

Twenty minutes later, it was apparent that Asuka still wasn't willing to give him the time of the day, which in retrospect, was something he considered and indeed counted on. So the young pilot loaded all the items on a small tray and carried them over to the still firmly closed door.

"Asuka?" Shinji knocked politely. When an answer wasn't forthcoming he knocked again, this time a bit louder. "Dinner is ready. I think you might like it tonight. Do you want to come out?"

Still no answer. Shinji sighed. It wasn't like he expected her to answer anyway. He unfortunately had a job to prepare for though, so he had no time to stand here and wait to see if she would come out. In all likely-hood she was probably listening, waiting for him to move away from the door to come out. It was just the way that the red head fumed, and Shinji, by this time, was used to it. With that, the young man left the tray carefully by the door, so that she would be able to see it once she finally decided to come out and left for the safety of his own room.

Indeed, the young EVA pilot had been quite correct in assuming that Asuka was waiting for him to leave, for as soon as his door softly, but firmly, closed she opened the door and looked down. There she found a tray, lovingly organized with a small red rose on the left side with a little card sitting over it. To the right was a plate with two huge smoked sausages with a heaping helping of sauerkraut and a side of au gratin potatoes. Asuka's face remained frozen in shock until a familiar scent reached her nose that she immediately recognized.

"Beer Basted," she said softly and let her facial expression collapse into a soft smile that spread even further when she read the card that sat over the rose: "Next time, just a firm shake would do," written in Shinji's usual neat hand writing. Asuka couldn't help but keep the smile plastered on her face as she brought her dinner into her room, shutting the door behind her. This time, however, with a lot less anger than before. "Baka."

Just a few feet away from the now happily sated red head, inside the neighboring room, Shinji sat and regarded the computer screen directly before him. Though the address that he received from his client was certainly legit, the location left a lot to be desired. Apparently, the apartment was in one of the many high rise buildings that existed within the inner city. Indeed, it even was one of the many buildings that were important enough to rate being pulled into the geofront during an angel attack. 

__

Hmm. Looks like this person is fairly important. Though Shinji really didn't care who it was. That was one of the many things that he endeavored to keep secret between himself and his clients. He did not want to know names or circumstances; all he needed was location and security data so that he may have an accurate picture on the feasibility of the job.

Despite the location of the apartment and the somewhat difficult looking way to enter it without being seen, the data that had been provided by his client was amazingly detailed. It contained the password to the only alarm system within the room and the exact location of the item in question. It even listed the fact that tonight the resident was on a late shift and wouldn't even be home until late tomorrow morning, which made the young Shinji even gladder that he had chosen to do this tonight. The only obstacles now were what specific time would be easiest for him to exit his own home unnoticed. Misato, he knew, wouldn't be back until the wee hours of the morning, and after the dinner he just slipped Asuka; she probably would be passed out very shortly after exiting from her nightly ritual soaking.

Even as he made the plans on what time to leave he heard the familiar sliding of the bathroom door and the ruffling that indicated a bed was being occupied. A mere few moments later, soft snores were heard from his neighbor's room and Shinji took that as a sign that it was safe to leave. As quietly as he could, he slipped over to the other side of his room and dressed quickly in the black clothes that would work to conceal his movements. Then over to a special hidden drawer at the back of his closest for a few gadgets that would make any spy proud. With his gear safely stowed away in his black backpack and the mask already pulled over his head, Shinji slipped out of his room and headed over towards the twin glass doors barring the exit to the porch.

Quiet as a cat, Shinji opened the doors and slipped outside, barely daring to breathe as he passed the small window that would be right outside Asuka's room. When he was sure it was safe and nobody was below him, the rope went over the ledge and Shinji neatly lifted himself over the ledge out down into the blackness of the familiar night.

Despite physical appearances otherwise, Shinji had gotten to be quite in shape during the few months he had been performing his services. As a result the half an hour jog from his apartment building to the targets building was a bare physical exertion, only making him sweat from the few times he had to use the covering shadows of alleyways and other buildings to avoid the occasional car. Fortunately, as this was in the newer, and hence, richer area of the city, the many establishments that avoided curfew and stayed open twenty-four hours were few and far between.

Shinji thoroughly enjoyed his silent jog to the site. He enjoyed the familiar blackness of the night that surrounded him and protected him, making it appear as if only a runaway shadow was slipping amongst the streets rather than a human being. He was enjoying his jog so much in fact that he almost missed the building that he was after, and only stopped himself after he noticed the plaza sign set in the concrete a hundred feet after the entrance. Shinji took advantage of the sign's shadow to familiarize himself with the various entrances and exits for the apartment complex as well as to catch a quick breather.

It appeared as if the complex was fundamentally simple. Each apartment had its own small porch, and each porch ascended vertically for about fifty stories or so. According to his data, the apartment he was looking for was facing the street he was now on and only a mere ten floors up. If he read the schematic of the building correctly, the specific complex of rooms should be the third from the left, so when he found the correct room that fit the data, he grimly began climbing directly up the face. It wasn't very hard to do, especially for one that was used to such clandestine activities. Each porch contained a wire railing that was only about his height away from the top of the previous railing. It was no matter to the young man at all to reach up and lift himself up to the next railing, pausing only a few minutes to reset his lifeline just in case.

Once Shinji reached the targeted porch, he slid up to the glass doors and looked inside, visually confirming several artifacts that would verify that this was indeed the apartment he was looking for. With the confirmation done, he set to work opening the door. The alarm was quite simple, mainly because of the location of the building, and consisted of a trigger that would set off the alarm only if glass were broken or if the code was not entered within twenty seconds of any door being accessed. Windows were to be avoided because they triggered the alarm regardless. 

With an audible snap, the lock on the porch doors slid to the unlocked position and Shinji quietly opened the door and ran over to the control console and entered the date that was provided by his client. He held his breath for a moment as the code was confirmed and smiled when at last the blinking red lights switched to green. With no danger of triggering the alarms, Shinji finally allowed himself to glance about the small dark apartment. It was almost fanatically neat, with no furniture showing any sign of any wear. There were plastic figurines of cats decorating most of the loaded bookshelves and even as he stood there, regarding the many thick tomes devoted to subjects as wide as advanced programming to romance novels, Shinji felt something small and furry begin to rub up against his legs. 

The young man started for only a few seconds until he saw a small black cat come into his view and regard him silently from the top of the couch.

"Hello there," Shinji smiled softly and scratched the cat's ears, much to the furry creature's delight. The young man had always loved any kind of animal, and it seemed as cats, especially this little one, were fast becoming one of his favorites. It certainly beat some of the times his clients neglected to mention that the target owned a dog.

After a few more pets, Shinji walked away from the little creature and began to search for the location that contained the object he was after. After a few moments of fruitless searching in the usual places, Shinji finally found the item tucked safely away in the bottom of one of the drawers in the bedroom. He could only smile and blush lightly when he removed a pair of leather panties cut in the bikini style.

"Yup, this is definitely LF36a-b." Shinji said to himself as he tucked the undergarments into his backpack before his imagination about who would wear such things could overtake his mind. "They certainly must be uncomfortable though," the pilot mumbled to himself before resetting the alarm and then walking over to the doors that led to his freedom. "Still, I can help but feel like I know the owner of this place."

Shinji spent no more time talking to himself as he closed the doors and made sure they were locked before once again disappearing into the darkness from whence he came. Another night another substantial deposit of money into his bank accounts, ensuring that the item he was wanting was slipping ever closer to his grasp.

***

praider The item was recovered with minimal trouble, the data you graciously provided was… invaluable.

The man known on the 'net as Riakfan smiled as his employee confirmed that the job had been indeed completed. Just as fast as was promised, as well. It was quite a testament to this raider's business sense, in his opinion. Now if only he could find several people within his own organization that were this talented.

riakfan Excellent. I received your account numbers and have already wired the payment to them, plus an extra bonus for your timely handling of the event. Do you have the pickup location?

praider Of Course. I just received confirmation of payment. The drop off point is the post office on fifth street, box 323. The combination is 45-62-105. Your bonus is…appreciated and most generous. It was a pleasure doing business with you.

riakfan Likewise. 

With the conversation ended, Gendo Ikari shut down his private terminal and leaned into his joined hands with a small grin. "That will certainly teach Dr. Akagi to steal my chibi Unit 01 boxers."

With his quiet comment, Gendo went back to contemplating the geofront outside of his office window. Wondering, not for the first time during this panty raider business where he could find an agent such as that enterprising gentleman.

***

"Achoo!" 

"Bless you."

Shinji turned towards Kensuke and gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"So anyway," Kensuke continued once the interruption was finished ensuring that he once again had his fellow stooge's attention. "Have you guys heard of this new guy that's running around town?"

When the young war otaku received complete and utter confused looks from both his companions he leaned closer in to his two friends.

"I've heard rumors about this new guy that calls himself by the name of "panty raider." Apparently, for a price he'll fetch a clean pair of anyone's panties as long as you supply a proper address and a few additional snippets of data."

Touji looked skeptical of his friend's admission, Shinji just looked plain disgusted.

"Oh come on, Kensuke, you can't possibly believe that someone would be that perverted do you?" Shinji spoke up, giving his friend a tolerant glare. "Why would anyone even want to keep such an item when they can purchase them themselves?"

"Shinji!" Kensuke regarded his friend with mock consternation. "It's not **just** any old pair, you know! It's a pair of your dream girls! They hold sentimental value to certain people."

"Humph, if you ask me, it's still pretty perverted to me." Shinji looked up and away from his friend, trying to hold off the smile that threatened to crack his face in half. Fortunately before his friend could get in another word edgewise, the final bell rang and all the students were released from their classroom, finally free to pursue their own interests after a long day of listing to yet another second impact lecture. 

Once the three friends said there goodbye's and left in their separate directions, a familiar red head stepped out of the classroom, instantly finding the retreating back of her roommate. "Humph," she huffed as Shinji left the school building and headed off in the direction of their home. "For once, I agree with that baka. That's just plain sick."

Though, as she thought about it more and more, Asuka began to get the beginnings of an idea in here head. Obviously, this 'panty raider' was a man, maybe even around their age. After all, only someone that young could be so willing to provide such a perverted service. If she could somehow find out who this person was, then maybe she could turn him in for a good amount of humiliation. If at the very least, she should consider stopping this hentai before she herself was the target. It was only a matter of time before someone requested something intimate of hers, and the idea of **any** hentai fondling her panties, even when she wasn't occupying them was sickening. With the force of conviction that Asuka was famous for, the plan began to hatch in her mind, and she planned it out the entire trip home. It was time for this hentai to meet the wit of Asuka Langley Sohryu.

****

End 

__

Author's Notes: Heh, heh…don't ask. Just don't ask. This fic is the direct result of three things: staying up too late reading too many EVA fics, waking up too early for work, and an extreme boredom that I only seem to encounter sitting in the office with not enough to do. Make no mistake, this is not slapstick humor or anything like that, I just can't seem to write things like that, it actually has a plot, or something that I like to call plot anyway that I'm definitely imagining in my mind's eye. However, I really have no plan besides a few more main points to get across, especially this thing that Shinji's saving up for and his motivation for doing this. Besides the fact that it's just so frighteningly weird for **Shinji** of all people to go slipping into people's houses after their panties and doing it for a price! Not to mention the first meeting of the panty raider to Asuka's character. Heh heh, and the cat and mouse game that ensues afterwards. That should be fun. Not to mention playing with their real life counterparts. ::chuckles:: We'll see where this goes when the mood strikes me. We'll see you again in the Panty Raider, episode 2: Roter Teufel strikes!

Also, a big BIG Arigato goes out to my personal bit..I mean pre-reader Sam Grayston, who graciously volunteered to look over this little travesty for errors. Arigato Gozaimasu Sam-san! 


	2. Roter Teufel Strikes!

__

Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to Anno-san and his fellows at Studio Gainax, not to mention to good people at ADV Films. I love playing with his characters and fortunately have no money to make a good target. **Warning! **OOC ahead (well duh! ^_^) and a little lime content. Have fun!

****

Seishoku Garasu Studios Presents…

The glow of the computer lights cast an eerie glow about the darkened room**. **In fact, most people would have found the light cast from the glowing monitor to be quite an annoyance, however, for the young woman that was seated in front of the computer unit it was of no consequence. If only because she considered what she was doing infinitely more important than the minor discomfort that the light caused. Of course, the minor thought crossed her mind that she didn't quite **have** to do this particular task at this time of night, but for her it was easier to work alone like this. Not to mention the fact that if she wanted to have any semblance of an attack strategy ready by tomorrow she need this done tonight.

Lightly, the soft snores from her neighbor and general apartment roommate came to her ears from the next room over and she let her features soften for a minute despite the mental concentration required to set up her own personal firewall. It was only at these times, when everyone else was asleep and she was free from prying eyes that Asuka allowed herself to think nicely of her fellow pilot. At first, it was only to push away the demons that chased her throughout the night; it was rather nice to have someone that despite all odds genuinely seemed to be nice to her for no other apparent reason. Slowly, however, especially after her experience inside the volcano, and then after he had disappeared into the twelfth Angel her possible feelings for the young man began to leech their way into her mind. Perhaps it was even possible that she would allow him to kiss her again…

_Shut up. _The rational mind of Asuka Langly Sohryu gave her heart a swift kick in the arse. Thoughts like that were dangerous and were not needed. Asuka shook her head lightly and scrunched her eyebrows together in concentration. _Damn, good thing I took those computer courses in college, they actually came in quite handy. _She allowed herself a small smile as the lines of code that she had been working on for hours straight compiled on her computer. Then corrected any errors the program spit back, soon she would be ready.

****

An original fan-fic by Garasu…

_At last! _ Asuka swallowed the incredible urge to whoop with joy as finally, on the third trial run her code came back error free and compiled properly into a little executable. A quick glance at her clock told her what she felt in her back, neck and eyes: that she had spent the better part of the night working on this little program of hers. Soon the sun would be coming over the horizon and expecting her to get up along with it.

Asuka sighed quietly as she saved the program and then transferred over to her school laptop where it would be accessible at all times. It had been a long, long time since she had last spent the entire night doing a project, in fact the last being was her senior project at college, that she didn't really know if she could handle a full day of school or not. _This little pervert better take the bait I give him or I will be one mad EVA pilot. _Asuka though violently, until the thought of what would happen to little Panty Raider when he did take the bait crossed her mind. _Heh heh…wunderbar._

Asuka coughed slightly when her evil cackling threatened to wake the residents on either side of her room and quickly undressed. She could at least get a small amount of rest before she had to be up. Her last conscious thoughts were of Shinji, sleeping in the next room over and the fact that that baka better get up this time or there will be hell to pay.

****

Panty Raider

Episode 2: Roter Teufel Strikes!

Ironically, at the same instant, a pair of eyes snapped open in the next room over and regarded the ceiling before his sleep weary eyes. Shinji shivered violently and closed his eyes again. _ Why do I have this bad feeling that someone is thinking about me? _ He asked of himself as his arms tried to rub any kind of warmth into his body. After only a few minutes it became painfully aware to his mind that he was not going to be allowed back to sleep again so he resigned himself and slowly drug his weary body from the nice warm covers. 

Minutes later Shinji Ikari slipped into the pleasantly warm waters of the bath and sighed to himself. He wasn't really comfortable with the way his dreams had been going lately as they slowly have started changing to ones of a decidedly more…erotic nature. Of course, he figured, it more than likely had a good deal to do with his new side-job to earn more money but that still didn't mean he had to like it one bit. Shinji was always the kind of person who shied away from any sort of physical contact and the sort of things he did often in his dreams were anything but physically distancing. Perhaps it was time to start thinking about retiring? But quickly, his mind dismissed that notion; he was too close from his objective to quit now, no matter how it was affecting him.

Bubbles cascaded gently up to the surface of the water as Shinji shifted restlessly in the tub, trying his hardest to relax all his thoughts away. Unfortunately, the way his mind was working at that time there wasn't enough time in the day to soak his problems away and besides, Asuka should be getting up soon, and he **really** didn't want to be getting in the red-heads way of her bath. It seemed that a good long soak in the morning was the only way to calm her usual temper down, so he made sure she had access to the bath whenever she wanted it.

It was with at least a little more refreshed feeling that Shinji started making breakfast after he had dressed. He had found the empty tray and plate by Asuka's door on his way to the kitchen and had already filled the sink with lukewarm water to soak away the encrusted leftover foodstuffs. Now that he really thought about it, though, it was rather strange to Shinji that his happiest times were making sure his moody red-head was happy. Of course, usually when he was busy making her happy she was no where to be seen until he had finished the deed, which, in his estimation, made the moment all the more better. To say that Asuka's presence was abrasive was an understatement upon the highest order.

As the smell of fresh cooked miso soup filled the room, Shinji suddenly realized that while he had been thinking of his roommate, she had yet to make an appearance. He couldn't even hear the sounds of water being splashed about, a strong indication that she had at least woken up. _ I wonder where could she be? She is almost always up by now. _ Shinji wondered, before a crease of concern swam across his brow. Could she be sick? Unfortunately for his health there was only one way to find out.

Getting up from the table Shinji wandered down the hall as quietly as he could, lest she actually was sick and needed her rest. A moment later he was standing before her door and contemplating his next move. Should he knock and risk waking her up? Or should he just open the door and take the risk that was doing nothing that he shouldn't see? 

A bright crimson blush appeared on his face as the implications of that statement made itself known. Even as he decided to knock, he couldn't shake the image of Asuka getting dressed from his mind.

"Asuka?" Shinji called her name softly moments after he knocked, concern tingeing his voice. "Asuka, are you awake? We're going to be late if you sleep much longer, and your breakfast is getting cold."

"Mmph," came the muffled reply. A least that confirmed to his conscious that she was still in bed and not in any stage of undress.

Shinji opened the door as quietly as he could and stood upon the threshold of the German girl's room. It was a very rare event that caused the young EVA pilot to enter "hell" as his friends called it. Asuka was very possessive of her domain and didn't like anybody entering her room without her express permission. Permission he certainly didn't have at this moment in time.

"Asuka? Are you feeling alright?" Shinji asked once again, making his way to her bedside. Unconsciously, he avoided the various piles of clothing scattered at random about the room, his concern for her overriding, at least temporarily, his self-preservation instincts.

"Nein," she answered in German, and even though Shinji didn't understand a lick of the language, he had managed to pick up a few of the one-word replies his companion said often. That unfortunately meant he also had a very healthy vocabulary of some very naughty German curses in his repertoire. 

At first he had thought she was answering his question, and was in fact about ready to turn around and head out of her room and let her sleep in when he heard a giggle escape from her lips. A quick regard later he determined that Asuka could only be having some sort of pleasant dream. When another giggle escaped from the red head's lips, Shinji was entranced. It wasn't exactly like he hadn't heard her giggle before, but this one sounded completely different from any other sound he had heard her utter. If he could describe it as anything, Shinji would place it under completely happy, a nice joyous sound that was music to his ears.

As Shinji stood beside Asuka's bed wondering what she was dreaming about, or who, his rational mind fought a war of aggression. She really needed to get up; otherwise they were going to be late. Unfortunately, in his opinion, the rational side won out in fairly short order.

"Auska," Shinji gently shook his roommate, trying to wake her up in the gentlest manner he could. She was sometimes **very** grumpy in the morning and he didn't feel like dealing with her wrath if this just happened to be one of those mornings. All he got for his efforts was another giggle and a few mutterings in German.

"Asuka, come on were going to be late for school." Shinji shook her harder this time, not caring if she hurt him or not. His threshold for pain was getting pretty big now anyway, what with all the hits he'd been receiving since his new roommate arrived. This time, though he actually did get a reply that somewhat made sense to him, even if it scared the wits out of the poor young man.

"Mmmm, Shin-chan…let me sleep in today, just for today okay?" She moaned softly under her breath, making the poor male pilot freeze in his tracks and his eyes widen to show the whites clearly. That tone of voice…that god awful, dripping with honey soft voice she used was like nothing he had ever heard anyone use in his presence. She wasn't teasing him, he knew because she was more than likely barely conscious of what she was saying. The voice was genuine and suddenly, more than any other time he could remember, Shinji feared for his life.

"She must be sick," Shinji reasoned to himself, voice shaking heavily. Fever was the only thing that could make Asuka Langly Sohryu say something like that to him, and in that tone of voice. "Yes, that's it," he convinced himself as he walked, woodenly, towards the German's bedroom door. "Sick… ha ha…very sick."

Poor Shinji Ikari never made it through his breakfast.

"Hey, Shinji!" 

The young EVA pilot turned at the sound of his voice and spied his friend Kensuke trailing behind the taller and more athletic Touji, coming up behind him as he went to lunch. "Oh, hey guys. Sorry I was kind of off into my own little world there."

"Yeah, we noticed," Touji said as he caught up with his shorter friend. "What's gotten into ya, man? You've been moping all day today! Kensuke and I would think you'd be jumping for joy that the demon didn't come to school today."

Shinji smiled a shy smile as Kensuke ran up to him and added his two cents worth. It was just like them to believe that his world revolved around the presence, or absence of his red-haired companion.

"No, I think she's sick today," he added after Kensuke finished his tired of joy for a devil-less day. He lied slightly, in that he knew she wasn't sick, but still after all morning thinking about what she had said, he had at least determined that Asuka certainly wasn't within her right mind either. Maybe she'd been having too much stress in her life lately? 

"Oh, well…" Touji answered, completely at a loss of words when his friend hadn't answered with the enthusiasm he had expected. "Well, I hope at least she gives you some peace and quiet then, but somehow I doubt that she would."

Shinji had to chuckle at Touji's remark. Indeed, the relatively few times Asuka had been sick she'd been an absolute terror always bossing him about more than usual and demanding in no uncertain terms that he was to wait on her hand and foot. It had been an all too brief sweet revenge when during that one particularly nasty evening she lost her voice due to the coughing fits.

"Don't worry, I think she'll be fine, and I know I'll survive somehow." Shinji remarked and gave his fellow stooges the best smile he could muster.

The smile worked like a charm, and soon his friends had moved on to better topics, or at least in their estimation better topics. Shinji could only frown as his companions once again felt the need to mention his alter ego. In some ways, he liked being famous, even if nobody knew who he was, but it still felt so strange to be talking about himself or listen to other boys speak of him in a worshipful manner. It didn't help, as well, the few dark expressions the girls gave anyone who mentioned his night job.

__

I wonder if I will always feel guilty about it, even though it's something that I kind of enjoy. It's fun being able to sneak into people's houses at night and not be detected. It's more than enjoyable as well to have a little bit of spending money. Shinji smiled. He had been extremely cautious about the money given to him through his various jobs. Most of it went to several bank accounts that were not situated within the city. The little that made it into his personal bank account, only after being transferred from several other banks to increase the paper trail, was just enough to buy a few things here and there. Everything else was for the gift, or for college. Mentally, Shinji shrugged, tuition had to be paid somehow and he rather doubted that NERV would see fit to make sure the pilots were well compensated anytime soon.

"Shinji, yoo-hoo." A hand in front of his face brought the young pilot back to the here and now and he regarded the owner of the hand with a quizzical stare. "I asked if there was anyone in particular that you would like to have visited by our God of the Night."

"God of the Night?" Shinji asked, quite literally stunned. "Who would that be?"

"Haven't you been listening to a word I've been saying?" Kensuke asked, slightly miffed. "The Panty Raider, you idiot. You know, the guy that's the hero to every ecchi and hentai in this school, and maybe even this city!"

Shinji immediately decided that he didn't like the slight gleam in his friend's eyes. "No, I think that what that guy does is rather disgusting," he commented quietly, though for some reason a vision of a half naked red-head, lying stomach down on her bed and blowing him a little kiss wiggled itself into his mind. Hmmm, maybe he wouldn't mind seeing **her**…No! Shinji shook his head and violently tried to suppress the rising blush that threatened to overtake him.

Kensuke regarded the ever rising red color that appeared on his friend's face and smiled. _Heh heh, typical Shinji Ikari, that's for sure. Says one thing, but you just **know** that something else is on his mind. I wonder who he's thinking about? Maybe that cute new girl that sits four seats back from him? _

Outwardly, Kensuke dropped the line of conversation without much fuss. He knew better than to try and draw the EVA pilot away from his fantasies. _Besides, _he added to himself, _I bet they're not even that bad._

Fortunately for all involved that the lunch bell chose that particular time to ring, ordering all the students back to their seats and the promise of yet another boring second impact lecture.

The first thing that Shinji noticed when he got back to his desk and powered up his laptop was the fact that someone had sent him a message while he was gone. The second thing he had noticed was the time stamp on it. It had been just shortly after he had left for lunch. _Damn, _he swore to himself. _I hate keeping clients waiting. _ With a small frown, Shinji launched the secure chatroom he used to conduct his business and sent off a message to his possible client that he was present once again.

praider Please excuse me, I had other business to attend to. What can I do for you?

roter_teufel Whatever, sure doesn't speak kindly of your business if you make a client wait.

Shinji regarded the screen with quiet surprise. This one was definitely different than the others. He was a lot more outspoken. Most clients he had tended to be painfully shy, and reasonably scared that they would get caught at what ever they were doing, the only exception being his last business venture. That man had certainly not been rude, just very efficient. The pervious mood though, had been that business attitude that he had gotten used to, and while this one had thrown him off it certainly made slipping into Ikari Business Mode a bit easier. He didn't take too kindly to being insulted, especially if the said insulter expected him to do such a dangerous job for him.

praider If there is something I can do for you, I can assure you that the fastest way to have it refused is to insult me.

roter_teufel Yeah, Yeah. I understand you can get anything asked for as long as an address is provided as well as some other information.

praider Within reason. I make no promises. The circumstances and the …conditions of the deal will determine if the job is feasible. 

Somehow, Shinji had the feeling that the conditions of this agreement would have to be impossible to refuse for him to do this assignment. He could feel the dislike for this man and his attitude radiating from within his mind, yet he still managed to keep his outward manner calm and gave the potential client every benefit of the doubt. Sometimes, hentais were just very socially inept; it was something he understood, even if it wasn't the same sort of ineptness that he showed.

roter_teufel Hmmph, figured. Anyway here's the address. The object is simply PWP-s. Do you think you can handle that? Oh and the conditions and payment for this little job are in the next attachment.

Shinji never got to the other attachment, or at least not for a very long time. The address that this person had sent him was too familiar for him to make any coherent thought possible. It wasn't like he had expected for this to happen sooner or later, especially considering the target, but he had always hoped that he would be lucky enough to avoid anything like this until he could afford to be picky or even retire. 

Shinji checked again and simply stared at the black letters printed on the white screen before him. For written in plain black japanese was his very own address. To make matters even worse the "-s" could only belong to one person, a certain roommate of his. To be more specific a red-headed roommate.

praider I'll look into the matter. I will contact you with my decision soon.

That was all Shinji could get out before his business mode fell apart around him and all color drained from his face. He quietly closed the laptop in front of him and placed his head between his hands, the price of the deal all but forgotten for quite some time.

Asuka woke up in a sudden haze, barely conscious of her surrounding environment. The small band marching through her head a clear indication to her sleep fogged mind that she had slept way to long. Rubbing her head to protect herself from the increasing tempo of pain that ran over her brain, Asuka spared a brief glance towards the digital timepiece that was in her room.

"What??? That BAKA! Why didn't he wake me up?" Asuka was about to contrive some new and very interesting words to place in the newest version of Webster's International Dictionary when the ringing of the phone brought her from her anger induced haze. Grumbling still about bakas and all manners of hentais everywhere she got up and padded her way towards the offending object.

"Hello? Katsuragi residence, Sohryu speaking." She answered quickly. She still couldn't quite place the edge out of her voice but she hoped she at least sounded polite enough to satisfy the caller. Damn Japanese and their polite ways.

"Oh, Asuka! Great you're up." The happy voice of Misato Katsuragi replied to the younger woman's greeting. "Shinji called me and told me you were quite sick today and had to stay home. I was just checking to see if you were feeling any better?"

Asuka's temper suddenly left her as she realized that the baka had covered for her and actually did something nice. 

"Oh, I'm fine Misato." Asuka answered, a little more subdued than before, her edge completely gone. "Thank you for calling."

"No problem! Shinji said he'd bring your printouts back with him from school today. Is there nothing else that you need from me?" With assurances from Asuka that she did not, in fact, need any special medications Misato hung up the phone, leaving Asuka to stare blankly at the wall.

"Baka," she muttered as she left to get dressed. "This still doesn't mean I like you, but I guess you're tolerable." All other thoughts were silenced as the nice warm bath water began to run into the tub and the young woman began to get ready for the day ahead of her. What was left of it anyway.

A scant hour after Asuka had left the bath found the EVA pilot softly humming to herself as she booted up her computer and loaded the special software that she had spent a great deal of last night compiling. She had been hoping to conduct this business at school where the anonymous IP address system of the school's network would have made it more difficult to trace her location. However her special software, aptly named the Red Wall, would be protection enough from most tracer programs on the market. She was a genius after all and this little firewall was a brainchild of hers. Asuka spared a small evil smile.

"It's time to hunt a Hentai." The red head's evil smile widened as the program boot up and initiated itself. Moments later she was busily thrumming through channels with the patience of a skilled hunter looking for clues on the whereabouts of the one who called himself the Panty Raider. As her search dragged on however she was a bit surprised at how well the young man guarded himself as she had figured that someone as perverted as the raider would have almost no brains whatsoever. 

Soon enough, though, her searching was rewarded and she was able to track down the address of the chat room he supposedly used for all his business transactions. The red haze of blood flooded Asuka's vision as the target she longed for came ever closer to her grasp so it was with an incredible sense of disappointment that she found the man not at his chat room. _Where in the world can he be? _ She thought viscously as her fingers thrummed impatiently upon the wood of her desk. It was at that time that her stomach decided to inform her that it required something to eat; since she had slept in she had therefore skipped breakfast and had completely forgotten about food in her current attitude.

"Oh all right," Asuka muttered and got up from her seat to make her way to the kitchen. "I suppose perverts have to eat too and he'll probably be back by the time I finish." So it was that thought that found Asuka sitting at the kitchen table a few minutes later with a pile of leftovers in front of her and happily giving into the wants and needs of her stomach.

Just as she was finishing the last of the ramen noodles a sound from her room indicated that she had received a message. Considering that the only chat room she had left open was the one with her target she had a fairly good idea of who it was. So it came as no surprise when she walked into her room and found a message from the panty raider himself.

"Show time," Asuka's earlier evil mood returned with a vengeance as she sat down and read the message that the self styled thief had given her. "Hmmph, polite bastard." She uttered as she contemplated her next move. Given her temper though, it was hardly surprising that she was not quite as courteous as her target.

"Ha! He's got balls!" Asuka found herself laughing at the angry retort that came back her way. She felt it was something that the Commander would say if he were pissed: calm, yet no loss of an edge could be detected. "So far, Mr. Hentai, you're not doing too badly, but now it's time for your undoing."

Even as she said the words Asuka sent the attachment that contained her address and the "item" she was requesting. Just one of her boring white ones; she had so many more fancier things in her possession but she felt she didn't need to over do it. Besides, once the raider took her bait and came to retrieve the item she would be victorious! It wasn't like he was going to see anything intimate of hers anyway.

The reaction she received wasn't quite what she had expected, but she figured that with as safe as he showed himself to be so far it wasn't so completely far fetched and that nothing was wrong with the situation. Although, to seal the deal for sure she made sure to send the picture she had spent a **lot** of time drawing after she had first come up with this idea. Asuka was a decent artist in her own eyes and certainly could make something quite recognizable. But the picture she drew of herself in one of her…racier numbers was nothing short of masterful in her own vaunted opinion. She had spent a lot of time making sure that the shading was correct and had even taken the time to color in the item just to make sure she sealed the deal. 

Asuka rubbed her hands in barely concealed evil glee as she sat, hardly waiting for an answer. She was going to catch the most perverted resident of Tokyo-3 with her bare hands and it felt damn good.

"Asuka Langly, Pervert Slayer!" Asuka laughed to herself. Soon, however, her evil mood overtook her emotions and the small apartment was filled with evil laughter the likes of which it had never heard.

Unknown to the evilly laughing figure a certain penguin cowered in fear at the sound and promptly hid himself in his fridge. That damn red-head was too damn scary in his opinion.

By the end of the day, Shinji had collected enough of his wits about him to make a somewhat educated decision concerning his latest client. He needed the money, yet he cared about Asuka too much to let any one else see that part of her that he so longed to see. He would of course check the fee, but unless it was high enough to afford the item he wished to get immediately he knew with certainty that he would refuse the job. It was just too much of a risk.

With the most important decision made, Shinji logged back on to his computer and began to download the attachment that contained the fee. Oddly, it was in a picture format which made him leery enough to scan, but when it came up clean he shrugged silently. Of course the title of the picture: "Something that I know you can't refuse" made him nervous all over again.

A few seconds later the picture began to resolve before his eyes one pass at a time. He hated it when people saved pictures in that damn progressive picture format; it made even fast connections seem terribly inadequate. All thoughts, however, left him when the picture was resolved enough to reveal a face completely familiar to him. In Japan most people had dark hair, if it wasn't black it was some color that was dark enough to be considered almost black, it was the natural way of the people native to his country. The example before him was one that nobody in the country could mistake for a native, as if her bright auburn hair wasn't enough of a tell tale sign there was the smooth porcelain white skin or the voluminous blue eyes as well. Each factor burned an image of the girl in the minds of all who encountered her. The drawing that was being revealed to Shinji was exquisitely done, even considering it had been done with a colored pencil. Everything was exactly rendered with no detail left unturned.

It was almost as if the drawing had come alive, the way the figure turned coyly towards the artist, leaning against what Shinji assumed was a wall. When more was revealed to him, Shinji's eyes widened imperceptibly and it felt as if his mind had just jumped off a cliff. Her bare shoulders were colored and shaded in an arousing light cream, just good enough to simulate a skin tone, but further than that, the reason that caused his mind to come to a grinding halt was the fact that she not clothed from the waist up. 

The picture was tasteful, of that he was grateful, as the turn of the model's back was just enough to reveal the slight rounded form of her breast and left everything specific to the imagination. Shinji almost didn't even get past this fact, but slowly, painfully his eyes wandered down and was relieved – imperceptibly – to find that she was indeed not completely naked. However, the sapphire blue color of her lacy panties that covered just enough of her shapely rear to be "decent" was something that he never in a million years imagined the person would wear. After that, came long, long legs that were rendered in as much detail as the rest of the girl's body. The drawing was utterly perfect.

Shinji had just enough brainpower left to recognize the softly smiling visage of Asuka on the screen before him and to hit the "delete" button before he blanked out. The laptop automatically closed the image and stuck it into the trash folder before any one else could spy what had caused the Third Children to rather noisily fall out of his chair.

Weakly, and to the tune of a lot of silent giggling and whispering, Shinji got back up into his chair and regarded the screen before him. He didn't want to know how that person had gotten that picture of Asuka, or why they wanted to send that as payment but it was just enough to cover his formerly empty senses with white hot rage. He, fortunately, managed to conceal it from the rest of the class as his hands folded themselves up underneath his chin and he glared at the screen before him with narrow slits for eyes. If glares were enough to break machines, the poor laptop wouldn't have stood a chance as Shinji quietly contemplated his reply. It wasn't very hard.

praider No.

That word just about summed it up enough without giving too much information on the subject. Short and too the point, he would have done his father proud right then and there. Of course, his soon to be forgotten "non-client" couldn't believe what she saw on the screen.

"What the hell?" Asuka nearly spat at the screen. That damn hentai bastard was refusing her? She had to make sure he knew the full details of the deal, just to make sure he wasn't a total freaking idiot.

roter_teufel You are aware that the drawing is yours, and that because you accepted it you have unofficially accepted the deal?

Asuka smiled, that would get him for sure. This guy maybe a pervert but he had to have a business sense. Who could refuse one such as her in her underwear? The reply brought her up short.

praider The picture has been deleted. I reserve the right to refuse any deal, and I'm refusing this one. The person must be no older than fifteen; I do not steal minor's panties no matter what the price.

Shinji thought that that was a good excuse. He, in truth, felt sickened by stealing something of Asuka's but not just because she was a minor by the law but that was the reason he would vehemently stick with.

roter_teufel Whatever. Your loss.

Asuka was pissed, but confused at the same time. The pervert of all perverts refused to do a job because it involved a minor. It didn't even matter that she hated thinking of herself as a minor, the mere fact that this little panty stealer was using **morals **against **her**. 

"Oh well," Asuka sighed letting her anger and confusion go in one large exhalation. "That was the easy way; your arse is still mine Panty Raider." With her last word, Asuka initiated her special trace program. She had already noticed earlier that the IP address of the pervert's room was actually on the school network, confirming her earlier surmise that the little hentai was a student. Within no time her trace program could find the exact address of the computer being used and then she could trace the person from there. Plan B was a bit harder, but she would still win. Asuka Langly Sohryu refused to lose to anyone, especially a lowly pervert.

"The hell?" The next statement out of her mouth was a note of surprise as her programs initiative was intercepted by something else. The next thing the confused red-head noticed was that a little object marched out onto her screen. "It looks...it looks like unit zero!"

Indeed, the little chibi figure, almost cutely rendered by a computer was an exact picture of the prototype evangelion. It stood there at the center of her screen and "glared" at her. Glare being an excellent description because the figure on her computer had its mono eye starting straight out at her and its hands were on its hips in a freaky parody of an angry mother. The pilot of unit two just sat in front of her computer screen staring at the little image, too shell shocked to even think about doing anything.

Before Asuka could do anything else or gather her wits about her, the little unit zero smiled suddenly and let out a little "hee hee" through her speakers. It quickly flashed a victory sign using two fingers of one hand, the other hand still placed at its hips, before walking over to her Red Wall icon and began nibbling on it.

"Shiest! A computer Virus!" Asuka got her brains back under control just quick enough to disengage the modem and slap an anti-virus quarantine around the chibi figure. As Asuka assessed and lamented the damaged code to her program, the little chibi unit zero walked back and forth inside a graphical fence. Even as her anti virus software took care of the little annoyance the image was still laughing from inside its pen, remaining the annoyingly cute graphical representation of the virus until the end.

"Crap, its going to take me another night just to fix this damn code! I guess it's over to plan C…as soon as I figure out what that is." Asuka stared at her computer screen accusingly, as if she were talking to panty raider herself. "And you don't worry, your arse is still mine, you're just a more resourceful pervert than I thought."

With those final words, Asuka got up and switched her computer off. Shinji would be home soon, and she thought that maybe it was time that she thanked him properly for covering for her this morning. She supposed that he would like something to eat as soon as he got home. Once she started thinking about the other pilot, and her roommate, Asuka forgot completely about the frustrations of the afternoon and lost herself completely in the task of making a nice snack.

When the final bell rang, releasing all the students from the respective classes, Shinji Ikari packed up his things and left his seat without another word spoken to anyone. He was still quite mad at the event that had just happened and couldn't bear to talk to anyone at the moment. All Shinji wanted to do was get home and collapse in his room to think. He was so quick to leave, in fact, that he did not even notice the interested glare coming from the back of the class room directed towards him. 

The quiet figure regarded her subject for a moment or two before retracting her finger from the key board and the small "execute" button on which a single, delicate digit had been hovering over for quite some time. Only she and the unknown assailant knew the danger that the young pilot would have been in had his location been traced by the program she intercepted. Quietly, she folded the laptop up and placed it in her bag. If she had anything to say about it, she would like to keep the young pilot ignorant of this sudden unexpected interest in his computer location. It was after all, a part of the promise she had made to herself.

As Rei Ayanami passed the young man who was in charge of the cleanup duty for the evening, the boy could have swore he heard something come from the enigmatic girl's mouth, but quietly explained it all as a deranged mirage. Ayanami did not speak, that was that. 

It was indeed good that he had not heard her, as the mumble was below the hearing level of most people, for if he had the hapless lad would have promptly feinted on the spot. For Rei had uttered the single most vehement sentence she had ever thought of.

"I **will** protect Ikari-kun at all costs."

Rei smiled to herself, a small barely visibly smile that only those that knew her well would have been able to spot. Finally, satisfied with her statement and the conviction behind it the young blue-haired woman walked out of the school heading for her own small apartment.

****

End

Author's Endnotes: _Bwhahahahahah! Now this episode was fun to write. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed the next addition to my little bit of insanity, even though some of the jokes were a fair bit corny. As always comments and criticisms are welcome. I usually dislike writing lime content but felt it was necessary in this case, and besides is was pretty watered down. Heh heh, but who am I to argue about fan service? Hope you enjoyed it, for what it was worth. Once again big thanks to Dante-san for pre reading! See you all in episode 3: Trouble on the Homefront!_

Additional Notes: Yes, this is a re-released version of episode two. As anyone who can remember the older one there were a few errors myself and my pre-reader, for whatever reason, did not catch the first time around and I felt that some things could have been better. Hence, this re-vamped part 2. Astute people will also notice that the title of episode three has changed. I just couldn't make my original plan work, so I formulated a new idea to base it around. I really hope you'll be pleasantly entertained. This part will be submitted as soon as I send episode three to my pre-reader so be assured that it will only be a matter of a day or so before all new material. Oh joy, ne? ^^ See you all next time around!


	3. Trouble on the Home Front!

__

Neon Genesis Evangelion is property of those nice people over at ADV films and Gainax studios. I love their series and everything to do with it. I write this for fun!

****

Seishoku Garasu Studios Presents…

The door silently slid open and gave Shinji access to the inside. The lock on this door seemed to be of a special caliber that took the young raider sometime to crack, which of course further irritated him about the job he was currently doing. As the young black clad man entered the premises, confident through his sources that no one was home, he thought about his reasons for doing this particular raid. Pure and simply, the money was too good to pass up. He was, of course, worried about the lack of security details the client could provide, but he was confident in that his experiences would be able to help him do the job cleanly.

Shinji quickly and quietly slid past the various articles of furniture and disarmed the security system with minimal effort. It seemed that most people in Tokyo-3 were pretty lax about inside security systems. True, crime was certainly rare because of the efficient city management from the Magi super computers, but it still made the young pilot wonder about that special lack.

"Not that I mind," Shinji told himself as he began searching for the item in question. "The lack of security certainly makes my job a lot easier." 

After several more minutes of searching, Shinji began to lose a little bit of his carefully stored patience. According to the client, the item in question should have been in any of the usual places, yet he had already searched through several drawers and still nothing. This was yet another point against his client, in Shinji's mind. This job was turning out to be less and less worth the money he would be paid or the effort he put into it.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of fruitless searching through clothes and drawers, he finally found the item he had been looking for in the bottom of a shirt drawer. The young raider had carefully searched of course as he didn't want to make the house look as if it was ransacked, a fact that would surely begin an inquiry into his activities.

"Hmm, probably placed there by accident," he muttered to himself and began the process of turning around and placing the item into the safety of his back pack and closing the drawer when suddenly the lights flipped on in another room of the house.

****

An Original Fanfic by Garasu…

"Shit," Shinji whispered harshly and dove under the bed that was next to him after making sure everything was back in place just in time to watch as a pair of feet came into the bedroom, turn around and flop onto the bed above him. In his mind, Shinji began cursing every word and god he knew against the client of his. When he got back he was going to **flambaste** that man so royally hard he'll be able to smell the barbecue from school. The cursing continued for an extraordinary amount of time in no small part due to a certain redhead, so that by the time he was done the young man felt that he was at least nominally feeling better.

Finally, as his mental cursing wound down, Shinji heard the doorbell ring from the other side of the apartment and wondered curiously at it.

"Who could it be this late at night?" The woman above him wondered, echoing Shinji's thoughts from below her bed. After making sure that she was decent to be answering the door, the young woman got up and padded out of her bedroom and over to the front door. Looking through the peephole she was greeted by the most unusual sight of a blue haired girl with red eyes standing before her and dressed completely in black.

"Yes, may I help you?" The young woman asked when she had opened the door, curious at least as to why someone so young looking was standing at her door at such a late hour. 

"Yes," the young woman answered in a quiet voice. "I am here to inform you of something."

Unseen to the young woman, the girl's eyes slid over just a fraction to make sure that Ikari was taking opportunity to sneak out. She had been watching him from afar, dressed identically as he was, and knew instantly that the young man was in trouble the second the door opened and the lights flipped on. Hence, the reason she was standing before the door now. She promised she would protect Ikari at all costs, and he was indeed in trouble now. She was briefly glad to see a shadowy figure sneak behind the young owner of the apartment and disappear out the door as quietly as a whisper of wind.

"I am here to inform you that I am the pumpkin queen," Rei Ayanami said in a quiet, serious voice before turning around and walking back down the hallway, her job of protection done.

As the young woman watched her strange visitor disappear into the elevator then turned back into her own apartment she couldn't help thinking that it was time to move out of this crazy town. The people around here were just too strange for words anymore.

****

Panty Raider

Episode 3: Trouble on the Home Front!

The next day was a very distracting day for all involved in the current project. Of course, the distraction made it all the more frustrating considering that the current project was merely a simple matter of synch tests. The very same synch tests, in fact, that the three pilots, two scientists, and one major did every Tuesday and Thursday morning and sometimes even on a Saturday to the disgruntlement of the afore mentioned pilots. Distractions led to a lower score, a lower score led to a grumpy scientist and a grumpy scientist led to an irritable major which in turn yielded distracted pilots, the cycle was never ending and it seemed to show no mercy on this very particular day.

Ritsuko Akagi, the grumpy scientist, was not a happy person this morning. Even more unhappy than she usually was on a morning that the children's scores were slightly lower than their usual. This morning's unhappiness had nothing to do with the lower scores however, and everything to do with the surreptitious skirt adjusting she kept feeling the need to do.

"Damn laundromat pervert," the disgruntled doctor mumbled under breath, giving the synchro graph a withering look. "I bet he stole my damn power panties, I can't ever work on the projects That Bastard wants me to complete without them." 

Ritsuko sighed and keyed in the microphone, anxiously wanting to take out her annoyance on someone, and the pilot that was performing exactly one point two-five percent under par was exactly the target she was looking for. In fact she was so intent on taking out her anger she completely missed the furious blush that Maya now had set on her face. Mumblings about 'power panties' wasn't exactly something she was used to hearing from her sempai, though she couldn't help wondering what exactly could be empowering about a piece of supportive cloth. The simple explanation for the even redder look that suddenly over took her.

"Asuka, for Pete's sake we do this every single Tuesday and Thursday, you can find time to wonder about whatever it is you're wondering about some other time, preferably **away** from the entry plug." Ritsuko grumbled through the two-way radio that was installed into the test plugs. She would have gone after Shinji and his one point two-six percent drop, but a quick glance at Misato's current mood and she knew that that would be opening up a bag of bacteriophages that she didn't want to enter. When Misato was grumpy, nobody got away with harping on Shinji, unless it was Misato herself.

Asuka, for her part, mumbled something in return and her graph went up another point two-five percent, an acceptable return for Ritsuko's efforts. Still, the young red headed pilot couldn't help her mind from wandering back to the subject she had been thinking about earlier, albeit in a little more scaled down manner. It wouldn't do for her to draw the wrath of the irritable doctor again.

_Damn panty freak and his stupid defenses. If I hadn't spent all night last night trying to tie into another line and hack his firewall I wouldn't be so damn tired. That stupid idiot gave me bags under my eyes!_

Asuka muttered a few expletives in German that involved some very complicated positions and a more than a few questions concerning a certain pervert's lineage before she began to seriously think about what she could do about the situation. In her mind, she was a genius and there was nothing she couldn't solve without a little prior thinking. So then why was this mystery giving her so many problems?

_Well, I know at least that he goes to our school. The address definitely showed it as coming from that point. But when would anyone have the time to hold a chat in the classroom? Unless…unless it was my classroom. I know that whenever that good for nothing teacher speaks everyone automatically tunes him out, and I **know** that that's the only teacher in the entire school that possesses that vaunted ability._

Asuka's mind began churning a mile a minute with that last thought. If it someone within her classroom, she was closer to that pervert than she would have liked. Still, that might also explain his reaction for the bait she tried to send him last time. She'd always gotten compliments about how much older than everyone else her age she looked and she had always conveyed that fact in the drawings that she did of herself as well. There was no way that the pervert would have been able to tell she was only fifteen unless he already knew her. But that left a collection of twenty or so people of which she knew mostly nothing about.

Suddenly a stray thought caught the red head's attention and she latched onto it with all her considerable mental strength. The user who deflected her attack had to be a good at computers, which was obvious; otherwise he wouldn't have known what she was doing. But it wasn't just the repulsion that caught her attention; it was the **manner** of the repulsion. An image of unit 00 wasn't too rare, considering the city they lived in and the dependence they had towards the three working EVA units, but few knew enough of the unit itself to actually make an animated version to use in such a manner. In fact, if Asuka considered all the points of intelligence she had gathered in the past few days since her failed trap, a computer genius and an EVA fanatic, there was a really only one person that fit that description.

A Stooge.

Asuka's fists curled up in a tight ball and her face grew a fierce scowl. Of course it would be a stooge. They were the only ones whom she considered actual competition to any of her abilities. Whereas in her mind she had everything: the looks, the brains, **and** the EVA; each individual stooge had but one or two abilities and they each challenged hers individually. With Touji, it was the looks and brute strength. Of course, Asuka herself was absolutely repulsed by his looks, but she could not ignore the fact that more than a few classmates had spent considerable time pining over the idiot. Then of course, her strength was more graceful in nature than the tallest of the three stooges but he still had plenty of it. Kensuke was just the same way in intelligence. Of course, his was stoogy intelligence, things that she would never be interested in, but there was no denying he was the brains of the bunch, replacing what was originally lost on the fist stooge. That nerd stooge was the only one she could think of that could rival her computer prowess, especially in the area of hacking. Finally, the third stooge, the stooge among stooges, Shinji Ikari. **That** stooge possessed the one thing no one else could have: piloting an EVA. He was also the only one who rivaled her synch records and her mastery of the huge organic life form's incredible abilities. Between those three, they were the closest things to her perfection, and it was well known that they often worked together on projects.

Still, for all that it made sense in her mind; there was one thing that she couldn't quite place. That was the conversation they had that informed her to the Pervert in the first place. Why would they be having such a conversation in the first place if it were them? Of course, Asuka's sharp wit led her to what she believed was a simple answer for that question: bragging to the one stooge who probably wouldn't be going along with such an idea.

Asuka Langley wasn't a fool, a fact much vocalized by herself, and she knew that as much as she thought of Shinji as being a pervert, he actually wasn't. There were things, she knew now, that the young pilot would and wouldn't do and after living with the boy for so long she knew them each well. In her mind, the surest way, however, to change Shinji's mind was to convince him that he was wrong. It was something that wasn't as simple as it sounded, for the other pilot was almost as stubborn as she was in certain areas. However, throw a few exciting stories his way, maybe toss around a simple monetary figure - for Asuka knew that the raider, no matter how perverted he was, had to be getting a **lot** of money out of this deal. Then theoretically, to a stooge's skewed mind anyway, Shinji just might be willing to go along with such a plot. 

Asuka shook her head, she really doubted that Shinji was perverted enough to do something like raid people's underwear drawers for money. She trusted him in that anyway. However, as far as the long-term picture was concerned, the young man was standing in her way of finding and exposing the real pervert for the entire world to see. What one stooge knew, after all, the others knew as well and Shinji was her key.

The German teen hunkered down into her entry plug; positively itching for the opportunity to get out of this damned prison, absolutely smiling with glee at the future plans her mind worked out. For Misato and the watching bridge crew, the sudden expression change on the second pilot's face was positively chilling. Some even would swear later that her hair curled up in a crude facsimile of horns.

Shinji meanwhile wasn't faring much better in his own entry plug. First of all, there was that damned itch in his nose that just simply wouldn't let go. The stupid thing about LCL was that it tended to dampen the effects of itching and such, preventing a logical reaction like sneezing. Right then, the young man wanted more than anything in the world was to sneeze.

_Damn itch_, the boy thought while trying to crinkle his nose enough to put the itch out. Finally, after an almost interminable amount of time, the itch went away almost as suddenly as it had come and Shinji sighed with relief, allowing his mind to wander back to what he had been thinking about all morning: his narrow escape from the job earlier. 

By all rights he should have been caught and been sitting in a prison cell about now, completely humiliated, yet for some reason he kept imaging that the visitor that allowed him to escape was deliberately timed. An even more disturbing fact when considering that he could almost swear he heard Rei's quiet voice on the other end of the door. Of course, being in a hurry as he was, as well as the position that he was currently in it did not give him the time or the angle to check out his first instinct. Though after thinking about it for a while, Shinji could only draw the conclusion that he had been hearing things, as it was simply impossible for Rei to aid him in his escape. There was just no way the seemingly emotionless pilot would do anything of the sort, especially if she knew what exactly it was he was going after in the first place.

Yet still, the feeling that he had some sort of mysterious protector could not be shaken from his mind. 

_Of course, I shouldn't have needed protection in the first place. _The young man thought viciously as his fist clenched in anger. The incident last night seemed to be the final straw in a string of things that had gone wrong with the raid last night, and by god he was going to draw it out of his clients hide. In all the months that he had been the Panty Raider there was never such a close incident than last night, with the possible exception of the first raid he ever went on.

_Heh heh._ Shinji chuckled in memory of his first raid as the panty Raider. Which in turn made the boy think of the whole reason he got into the business in the first place. As with all things that seemed absurd in his life it all began with a conversation with his two friends, Kensuke and Touji.

"So Shinji," Kensuke had called him from his quiet ruminations with a smirk on his face. The smirk that Shinji knew well as the to be the "beware: ecchi thought coming on" smirk that his friend took to wearing when a particularly evil thought crossed his mind. "I was just curious if you've ever seen Asuka's panties. You know, in addition to that first time."

Shinji stared curiously at the question that his friend just asked out of the blue and regarded the camera that was no shoved into his face, ready to record his answer for all posterity.

"I…I..uh, don't know. I don't think you should be asking that question." Shinji told him after fumbling over the furious blush that threatened to make his face break out in cold sweat. Then, when he was sure he got his embarrassment under control, his self-preservation instincts kicked in and he glanced around looking for the very redhead they were talking about. Asuka was scary, especially when it seemed that she could read his thoughts from a distance and even from several rooms away. If she caught this current conversation his life would be a made into a living hell.

"Aww, come on!" Kensuke added with the same smile on his face. "We all **know** you do Misato's and Asuka's laundry. So what colors do they use, hunh? I bet Misato uses plenty of purple." The boy finished when his smile turned into one of dreamy fantasy. Shinji had no trouble decrypting what that particular smile meant. Kensuke's fixation on his messy guardian bordered on insane.

"So how about Asuka?" Touji put in for the first time, grinning like a demented idiot. "We know you like her. Does she use anything but boring old white?"

The blush that Shinji had fought off bravely earlier fought its way back to his face and the boy could feel his cheeks begin to heat up. True, he did do the laundry a lot, and what his two roommates placed into the dirty laundry when it was his turn was positively embarrassing. He tried not to pay attention to those things too much though-; it would only get him into trouble later on if he did. Why did his life have to be so difficult?

"I don't pay attention to those things," Shinji told his friends in what he hoped was his most confident voice. Unfortunately for him it sounded less like confidence and more like a silent plea for them to leave off. "Can't we talk about something else now?"

Both Kensuke and Touji backed off from him echoing each other's humms, indicating that they were thinking over his request. Though the young pilot had a horrible feeling that they would not leave off. Kensuke was the first to speak.

"You know we can't do that, Shinji. You see, we're determined to bring you up to speed," the war otaku made a broad sweep of the grassy field they were currently sitting on indicating all the other young men from his class. "You really need to start thinking about these sort of things, it's just not healthy for you to keep it inside."

I…I do think of those things, sometimes." Shinji quietly asserted. Boy, do I ever, he added in his mind, thinking of all the dreams he had had of Asuka alone since the fiery teammate of his had arrived. "I just don't like to, that's all."

"So if you do think about it, then come on! Fess up!" Touji leaned in for the kill. "It'll be nice to have something over that demon, maybe it would shut her up every now and then."

"Yeah, then she would kill me because I'm the only one who would know and could tell you two," Shinji added miserably. "I'm sorry, I just can't tell you guys. It's my own life at stake. Besides," the boy added with a look directed at his two friends, "What is your fascination with panties anyway? Why are they so important to you?"

His erstwhile friends recoiled when Shinji had directed his questions towards them. Finally, the young man thought he would catch a break from his two friends and they would leave him alone. At least, he thought that until he caught that strange gleam in Kensuke's eyes again as the boy began to shake his head sadly.

"Shinji, Shinji, Shinji… you just don't get it do you?" Kensuke gave his friend a solemn smile before he continued. "It's not just a matter of thinking about them, it's a matter of getting to them. For young people like us they represent everything about the girl we wish for. Flashy, plain and boring, it doesn't matter; they all indicate a bit about the personality of your girl, so it's only natural for us to desire them."

"Really?" Shinji asked, considering the skewered logic that Kensuke had just used against him. It all sounded terribly confusing to his mind, but maybe there was a way to exploit this? 

Shinji recoiled at that thought. Dear lord what was he beginning to think? But then again, considering the earnest shaking of both of friends, maybe there was a plan behind this after all. 

Shinji shook his head from the vision that his flashback had left him. It was really strange that something as simple as that confused, embarrassing conversation had led him to formulating the idea of the Panty Raider. But simply put it began to be fun for him after a while. Of course, the raiding was just a means to money, but the fun part really came from acquiring the few spy gadgets he owned or learning how to scale apartment buildings unnoticed. If anything, he could at least draw from his experiences the fact that he was in much better shape than he ever was in his life. Something that Asuka just may find appealing, his mind added.

Still, despite all that, his first raid was a very dangerous adventure in which had almost been caught twice. And he certainly did not have any of the efficiency that he had now. Back then it was hard to find a few clients, now he had almost enough to be picky. But still, he worried about those few ignorant soles that never bothered to follow his carefully planned steps in order to get him to accept a job. No matter how much fun this job was, if he got caught he'd still be in big trouble so when someone didn't follow the rules, Shinji turned a considerable amount of his small impatience on them.

_Still, what is it about this mysterious protector that showed up last night? I feel like I should know him somehow._ Shinji drew idle circles on his butterfly handles thinking about the feminine quality of the voice he could have almost sworn he heard. But it just could not be a female. It was just impossible.

The voice of Ritsuko brought him from his idle thinking as she agitatedly brought Asuka to task for letting her mind wander. Guiltily, Shinji brought his attention back to the task at hand and finished out the test with a reasonable amount of attention. He'd think about this again later that night.

Meanwhile, in the entry plug on the far side of the test chamber Rei sat quietly in her chamber. Thinking privately and paying attention to the experiment without having them affect the other came effortless to the blue haired girl so she let her mind wander far and wide. Soon though, it focused on one subject in general: it was kind of fun to dress up in all black and follow Ikari. Maybe she would do it again the next time he went out? 

Rei smiled mysteriously and continued thinking about that thought.

Much later that evening a slight crash at his bedroom door woke Shinji up from a mild sleep. For a moment, the young man thought that someone had entered his room, but that was impossible. Misato was the only person who would be awake at this time of night, and he knew for a fact that his guardian was still at work until at least daybreak. With a resigned sigh and thoughts of growing slightly paranoid, Shinji tried to close his eyes again and go back to sleep. Just as he was about to do so, however, a dark figure suddenly shot up from below his bed and before the young pilot had a chance to scream a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Don't say a word, third child." Came a hoarse whisper, just within Shinji's hearing levels. It was so soft, in fact, that he couldn't even tell if he knew the voice or not or even make out the gender. Not that it mattered much even if he could hear, Shinji, at that time, was so scared that his poor mind couldn't comprehend anything of value anyway. 

"Follow me," the voice came from the darkness again, and before Shinji could even think to obey the command, he was unceremoniously hauled out of his bed. The young man could do nothing but follow after the dark figure as it hauled it out of his room and then gruffly shoved him down the hallway. It confused Shinji to no end when instead of going to the front door like he had expected; he was taken to the door of his fellow roommate and pilot. Was this person after Asuka too? Suddenly, Shinji was filled with a dread and abject terror that he had never felt before in his life. He couldn't let whom ever this person was take Asuka as well. He just couldn't!

Fighting as he had never done before, Shinji began twisting in the grip of his captor doing anything he could to loosen the iron grip that was around his wrist. In the end, Shinji only ended up cursing his lack of strength as the door to Asuka's room was torn open and he was unceremoniously shoved inside. Once inside the room, however, he blinked in confusion and looked around for a moment trying to orient his senses. The room was pitch black and he couldn't very well see a thing. This momentary lapse of resolve was just enough for his captor – who evidently knew exactly where they were going – to roughly shove him into a chair and bind his wrists behind him with expert ease. These actions only served to make the poor confused EVA pilot even more floundered. Why was he being tied up in Asuka's room?

Shinji had no more time to contemplate this newfound development as a light suddenly came on and was aimed directly towards his eyes. Quickly, the young man turned his head away and tried to wash the green afterglow away from the backs of his eyes by blinking rapidly.

"Wha…who are you?" Shinji asked once he finally gained enough vision to stare back at the silhouetted figure before him. The light, however, made it impossible to determine anything about the figure.

"That is unimportant third," came the voice, strangely distinctive to Shinji's ears. It sounded feminine now that he could hear it clearly, and had that certain ring that Asuka only seemed to have. But Shinji balked at that decision, it couldn't be Asuka! What would she want with him? Why would **she** drag him to her room in the middle of the night and then tie him to a chair? Shinji swallowed nervously as a thought came unbidden to his mind immediately. Just as quickly he shot that thought away from him as fast as he could. Asuka would **never** do that with him… or at least maybe not in such a manner. The boy could feel his face begin to flush with embarrassment.

"Get your mind out of the gutter," the shadow told him, giving Shinji a swap across the back of the head just for good measure. "I wish to have a little discussion with you."

_Yup, _Shinji thought with a grimace of pain. _That clinches it, it's definitely Asuka. She has a distinctive feel when her hand connects the back of my head. I'd know that slap anywhere. But still, what in the world would she want to talk to me about to the point where she would have to tie me up like this?_

"A-Asuka? Why did you tie me up? Why can't we talk in the morning?" Shinji vocalized his mental concerns with trepidation and more than a hint of fear. There was no telling what his unpredictable roommate would not hesitate to do to him should he not do what she wanted. But curiosity usually seemed to take precedence to pain in her presence, or so Shinji thought ruefully as another cuff came to the back of his head.

"Shut up, baka. I ask the questions here." Asuka bent into the light and let Shinji get an eyeful of her glaring face, and incidentally more than just a peak at what lay underneath her thin and low cut shirt. This had the effect of the young boy immediately closing his mouth and nodding silently, still staring at the space between the other pilot's breasts. Fortunately for his life Asuka could not see exactly where his eyes were looking at due to the shadows cast by the light of her lamp, so she folded herself gently into a chair placed just behind the light and smiled a bit to herself.

"Good, now then, I wish to ask you a few questions about your little friends. The stooge kind."

Shinji only blinked at her. Why would she want to know anything about Touji and Kensuke, two people she had never ever shown any interest in before? 

"What about them?" he asked, quietly.

"Oh, come on, Shinji! You can't tell me you don't know what's going on! I know they tell you all sorts of things about their exploits. I know how you feel about it!"

Shinji thought long and hard about what Asuka just said. Touji and Kensuke's exploits? What did she mean by that? Suddenly a smile spread across his face, well far be it for him to question why Asuka wanted to know about **that** but maybe the sooner this was over with the sooner he could get back to bed. It was just fortunate he didn't have a job to do tonight; otherwise he'd be in serious trouble.

"Oh that!" Shinji said, happily thinking that he would be back in bed in no time.

Asuka sat back and rubbed her hands in glee. Finally! She was going to expose those perverts for who they really were! "Yes, come on! Out with it already!" She impatiently told Shinji, giving his chair a swift kick just for good measure.

"Well, I suppose that it's really no secret but if you want to know I don't mind telling you. You see, Kensuke really needed some help with moving a few things so he called Touji to come over and help him. Well by the time those two were finished they had somehow managed to end up half way across town and covered from head to toe in mud. Now don't ask me why or how that managed to happen but you know Kensuke, some of those harebrained schemes of his are just downright frightening…"

"Enough!" Asuka cut Shinji's monologue off with her hand. "I don't care about some damned harebrained scheme by that geek!"

Shinji just closed his mouth and stared.

"Oh…but I thought you…"

"No, damn it! All I want you to tell me about that damn pervert the Panty Raider! I know those two are working together on it and they tell you everything!" Asuka could barely contain her seething anger and she had to visibly restrain herself from hurting her dense roommate physically several times.

Shinji, for his part instantly shut up at the mention of his alter ego. He was in some serious trouble now. Asuka was after him, and even though she had it completely wrong with the idea that Ken and Touji could be it, a little torture from him could have it coming right out of him like a song. If Asuka knew of his secret then any hope he would have of maybe getting a little closer to the woman would be completely and utterly shot down. 

The young pilot began to sweat nervously and tried to stall for time. Unfortunately for him Asuka suddenly decided to switch tactics, as it seemed being rough and mean wasn't getting her anywhere.

"Shinji," she purred and snuggled up to the young man tied to the chair before her. "I know you know something about this. I want you to tell me. Now, please?" 

"Just for good measure, Asuka made sure her face was completely visible to the boy and made sure he saw her 'pouty face' that **always** got her what she wanted with any male. She even allowed her finger to trail up Shinji's sternum and trace his rib line lightly to seal the deal. The young German could see her captive begin to sweat profusely and start to shake uncontrollably. It wouldn't be long now before he broke and spilled the guts.

Shinji was frozen in place. Asuka…sitting on his lap…touching him calling for him with that voice. He couldn't resist! Desperately he tried to summon up his Ikari Business Mode and perhaps be able to shrug off the German's advances. He knew it was just a ruse to get him to tell her what she wanted but still…it felt so…nice.

_Damn…Ikari Business Mode failing. Emergency! Emergency! _Shinji's mind frantically screamed at him as all his defenses came crumbling down in one fantastic groan. Though thankfully, one final countermeasure managed to kick itself up to the surface before he dissembled completely to the vision before him. Thank god for his nasty habit of stuttering.

"I…I can't tell you, I'm sorry Asuka. I just c-can't!" Shinji closed his eyes and turned away, determined to take whatever punishment his roommate would give him with a minimal amount of looking.

Shinji, expecting a few hits and a lot of cursing was then of course very surprised to find a low dangerous chuckle coming from his fellow's pilots lips instead of a string of cursed.

"Heh heh, Shinji. You didn't have to say anything. Just your reaction alone lets me know that they are guilty. I still don't understand why you insist on protecting those idiots, but that you do is noble." Asuka said in a low voice, still letting herself stay on his lap. It was after all, strangely warm. "Unfortunately for your friends, though, I'm too smart for them and they will rue the day they ever decided to become a bunch of more perverted idiots than they already were. Tomorrow they shall know humiliation like no other. Now I'm afraid it's time for you to get out of my room."

The red headed pilot got up suddenly, but instead of untying her captive she simply just drug him out into the middle of the living room and left him there, disappearing back into her own room chuckling madly.

"Asuka? Hello? Asuka? Don't leave me here…please? Untie me! Asuka??" Shinji called for his roommate helplessly as he struggled in his bounds, the imminent humiliation of his friends, not to mention the humiliation that Asuka will face when she finds out she got it all wrong a far thought in his mind as he fought to free himself.

Finally, the young pilot gave up and slumped in his chair only calling out the name of his captor weakly before falling asleep from exhaustion. 

Hours later a tired and grumpy Misato walked in her front door and leaned against it for support. It had been such a long day of paperwork, annoying employees, and Kaji's horrible flirting. All she wanted now was a six pack of her favorite beer and a nice long rest.

Removing her shoes, Misato began to walk into the blackness of her living room, absolutely confident that she could see where she was going simply because she had finally gotten used to her small apartment. That and the fact that with Shinji keeping the house fanatically clean at all times, she could be absolutely confident that nothing would be lying out in the middle of the floor for her to trip on.

So it came as a huge surprise when the purple tressed major fell over a large object right in the middle of the room and all she could let out was a strangled yell before her face planted into the ground.

"What the hell?" Misato got up and flipped on the nearest light then turned around to face the cursed object that had made her trip, expecting some rearranged furniture or something cutesy of her other charge. What she got was the sight of Shinji silently snoring with his chin resting on his chest. What was the most unusual about the scene, of course was not that Shinji was not in his bed sleeping, but instead that the pilot was tied to a chair with his hands bound behind him. It amazed Misato even more that the young man could even sleep like that.

"I don't want to know…I just don't want to know right now." She muttered under her breath and with that took out a fresh six pack of beer from her fridge and wandered over to her bedroom, careful to step around the sleeping form of Shinji. She would yell at Asuka tomorrow, she was too damn tired to do anything tonight. 

****

End

__

Author's Endnotes: Well, this one certainly took a long time to write. I must simply apologize for that as a huge case of writer's block struck me several times, then I was without a net connection for a while then once I finished this part and sent it away to my reader he agreed with some of my now budding thoughts. That this part was crap, though of course he didn't say it in nearly such crass terms. ^_^. So I scrapped a goodly portion of it and took a look at it again with some fresh ideas (no few thanks to Dante for coming up with). What I got is now something a little closer to what I had originally planned for this fic than what my previous part had. Hopefully now the humor is not as stale as it was in the last re-write – which thankfully you, the general public, never will have to be submitted to. Let me know what you think! I kind of like the way Rei is going, what about you guys? ::Evil smile:: We'll see you all in the fourth and final installment of Panty Raider: Final Raid!

Thanks again to my pre-reader Dante! You were a big help in this fic and I am in your debt, especially now that you saved my ass from putting out a crappy part and helped me see the vision which I truly had!

P.S. Oh yeah, that pumpkin queen joke **is** a subtle nod towards one of my favorite comedies of all time: "Shinji the Casanova" by Strike Fiss. If you haven't read that one yet, you really need to, it's hilarious!


	4. Final Raid!

_Neon Genesis Evangelion is sole property of ADV films, Studio Gainax and that Hideaki Anno guy. ^_^ Still poor, and still doing this for fun!_ ****

Seishoku Garasu Studios Presents…

The city of steal and glass slept. It was a quiet, peaceful sleep, one that was destined to bring good dreams to those whom the sandman had paid an early visit to their bedrooms. Unfortunately, buried deep within the ground underneath the technological marvel of Tokyo-3, a man sat alone in his room, untouched by the sands of sleep. Some would say that he never slept, as they had always seen him in this same room, in the same position every day, still others assumed that he had simply scared the sandman away. The latter people, when scoffed at, would always site that one day they found a twitching fairy-like figure in the corner of that room with black and blue bruises all over his body. Weird things like that, though, happened everyday with this man; this was life under Gendo Ikari's command. A life filled with half terror and half weird.

Tonight, like every night, the man who literally had the world eating from his hand still sat in that large room, in the same position he always sat in. To view this position was to know the depths of fear, for Gendo Ikari did not use this position for just any old day, no, this was his classic thinking pose. It was reserved for those times when his mind turned out evil plots that were meant further his agenda, to make his precious scenario come true. Tonight however, was different than the other nights in this respect. For tonight, Gendo was not thinking of plots, nor was he thinking of his many enemies. Tonight, Gendo Ikari was thinking of panties…or rather, the raider that stole them for a profession.

Gendo was not a stupid man, a fact that would belly his position and the respect, if not fear, that he was regarded with by the general populace that had had the pleasure of meeting him. He recognized talent when he saw it, and his short dealings with the panty raider had by and large impressed him greatly. He needed someone with that ingenuity, that daring, and some of those darn cool gadgets that he had heard rumors of the panty raider possessing. Hence, the reason for his thinking spell tonight for tonight he was thinking of way to make the praider himself come work for him.

The supreme commander sat like that all night, thinking and plotting. The sandman dared not approach that hallowed office that night or any other night while that man was there. After all, he didn't need another set of bruises to match the last set, did he?

When the night was finally over and the morning light entered the tinted window before Gendo's desk, the man stood up and smiled. He had a plan, and it was time to put it into action.

****

An Original Fanfic by Garasu…

Elsewhere, the morning tendrils of light were also just beginning to reach a certain other residence, and the occupant of the current room acknowledged them with a grunt and a tired yawn. It was time for Shinji Ikari to get up and get dressed.

Once his final morning reparations were completed, Shinji took the rare moment to himself to occupy his mind with simple chores of a personal nature, like checking his ill-used e-mail account and seeing if there were any jobs left in his queue from last night. This morning in particular gave the young man a general feeling of happiness as he checked the state of his many bank accounts. Today was the day he had hoped and planned for, the day he could finally use that one special account for the purpose it was intended. He had the funds transferred just the other day and now all it would take was the order and then everything would be squared away.

Momentarily, Shinji experienced a brief pang of nervousness as he picked up his phone and dialed the number that he had been given months ago by a friend to contact when he was ready to buy. As the phone rang, his sense of fear increased substantially. It was a very calculated risk doing something like this. He was never sure how the person he was trying to reach would react in this situation. He had never done anything like this before and despite the courage and strength that being the Panty Raider had given him, it had all seemed to leave him at this final moment of truth.

Shinji's fears were interrupted by a quiet answer on the other side of the line, and the young pilot schooled his voice to sound calm and controlled as best as he could.

"Hello, is this Mr. Hans Rasche?" he asked quietly in his best German, which wasn't very good at all. Why did he always manage to sound like a bad dub when he spoke any language besides his own native tongue?

"Yes, this is. I assume this is Shinji Ikari?" The older sounding man replied jovially, instantly putting Shinji at ease. "Would you like to conduct this transaction in English? I'm afraid Japanese is not known to me, and German definitely doesn't sound like something you are comfortable with." Hans continued kindly in strong, heavily accented English. Japanese, he knew were expected to take one or two foreign languages when they went through school, one could expect with good results that one of these at least, was English. Still he was greatly impressed that this man had attempted to speak his own language.

Shinji breathed a sigh of relief as the man on the other end of the phone line switched over to English. Granted he did not quite grasp all the concepts of that difficult language, but he understood more than his flagrant non-ability with German. It had taken him forever and a lot of discreet questions to Misato, whom had lived there for a brief time, just to learn how to greet someone.

"Thank you, Mr. Rasche," Shinji said quietly in a little stronger voice, gaining some of his confidence back with the kindness and respect that Hans had shown him so far.

"Now then, I assume you're still interested in the item that we spoke about before in our e-mail correspondence?" Hans asked Shinji, getting straight to the point. It was, after all, an international phone call, and those didn't come cheap nowadays, even with the ever rising level of technology in play.

"Yes," Shinji answered shortly, a little bit of his nervousness coming back to kick him in the rear. This was a lot of money to be spending with no guarantee of results, but hopefully, it would be a good reaction. He prayed it would be a good reaction.

"She really is a fine specimen." Hans observed, remembering what the item in question was with practiced ease. "You really do have a fine eye, and I'm sure you will be more than pleased with her. As I mentioned earlier, all accessories will be included, top quality. You wanted no expense spared, I'm sure."

Shinji Ikari nodded to himself, quietly affirming for his conscious that this was the right decision. He had no choice really, when he saw the item for the first time, he had known since that moment he would get it, and he wasted no time in telling Hans that he was interested. Something like this only came around once in a lifetime, and they did not last for very long. Especially for something like this, which had been a stroke of immense luck at all that he had even ran across it.

"Is there any special way in which you would like to be paid?" Shinji asked the man, once the list of accessories that were to come with his purchase had been vocalized.

"I think I'll leave that up to you, young man. You have my account numbers." Hans answered confidently, he couldn't quite explain it but for some reason this customer sounded a lot younger than he should be for such a purchase as this, but he didn't doubt the seriousness of the initial offer that came through to him. It was more than generous, and after only haggling a little bit, more just for show than anything else, they had finally agreed on a price of ten thousand American dollars. More than fair in his opinion for the quality. 

"I'll even ship her today so that she'll be there in time." The older man continued, smiling slightly on his end of the line. It was so nice to know that some people had at least grown up right what with all the hell that had happened almost sixteen years ago.

With the business transaction all but done, Shinji felt his tense body begin to relax. What happens, happens, for better or worse now he was in this deal and couldn't back out now. He quickly called up the secure connection to his special bank account and noted that even with this major purchase he would have money to spare. With a final sense of closure, Shinji pressed the execute button and watched as the wire went through and was approved.

"Thank you Mr. Rasche, you were a great help in this matter." Shinji told the elder man politely before they both exchanged a round of brief but heart-felt good bye's and then hung up.

Immediately afterwards, Shinji cast an eye in the direction of a certain room down the hall and mumbled to himself then smiled. She would like it.

****

Panty Raider Episode 4: Final Raid!

Asuka Langley Sohryuu groggily woke up from the previous nights' slumber, unconsciously echoing a thought of happiness coming from down the hall. Her reasons, however, were completely and utterly different than her roommate and fellow pilot's happiness. Within moments, she was up and had her arms filled with various sweet smelling soaps and shampoos. She had to look her best today after all, for today the Panty Raider, AKA the Stooges would be shot down in the flames of humiliation that would be so bright they would both never want to return to school again. 

Asuka's smile grew wider and wider as she padded over to the bathroom, ready to begin the day of humiliation and disgrace, and start it off right. However, as she passed the section of the house that belonged to Shinji, she somehow managed to catch a brief phrase coming from her fellow pilot's room that set her mind into a state of confusion.

True, it wasn't that unusual for the baka to be up at this time of morning, but why in the world would he be on the phone at this hour? Surely nobody, not even his idiot friends would be up at this time of day! Then, of course, there was the fact that the phrase she had managed to catch was a horribly mangled, but still audible greeting in German. Asuka's happiness dropped immediately and she scowled to herself. The wonder child was up to something again, and anything that would involve him speaking German didn't sound good at all for her.

Quietly, the red head shuffled up to the door, careful that she would not be heard standing outside and placed her ear against the door, her bathing goods forgotten for the time being. Nothing set her on edge than a mystery, and nothing set her even worse on edge when that mystery involved the Third Child. Asuka strained with all her might to hear what was going on in the room but as her bad luck would have it, Shinji never said much of anything, but thankfully he did switch over to English after the first attempt at German, a language Asuka knew even better than Japanese.

_What in the world is that idiot up to?_ Asuka asked herself as she continued listening to the quiet conversation that was going on in the room. "It sounds like…like…"

"A business transaction, perhaps?" 

Asuka froze at those words, words that were not hers, even though that last phrase had been spoken to herself out loud. Slowly she turned around and cringed with every degree her eyes took in. Misato, it seemed was in one of her trivial wake up early moods, and the mauve headed major was now standing directly behind her, smiling for all she was worth.

"Good morning, Asuka, find anything interesting in Shinji's room? Perhaps a certain pilot?" Misato asked, with the smile on her face growing even bigger by the second. These were the moments she lived for. Shinji was fun to tease but after a while it happened too much, he simply gave her too many opportunities. Asuka, however, was almost never caught at anything she could tease the young pilot with so when they did happen, Misato seized them with an almost maniac glee. "Why don't you go on in, I'm sure he's arranging something nice for you and would just **love** your company."

"I… uh…that is to say," Asuka for all her genius was caught speechless by the unrelenting Misato. She couldn't find any way to properly explain why she had her ear stuck to Shinji's door and listening in to whatever the boy was doing. If she said that she thought he was doing something perverted Misato would simply point out that she appeared to be simply fascinated and that would give her guardian a whole world of things to open up into. If she said anything else she would be confirmed as an eavesdropper, listening to things that weren't any of her business. Simply put, she was screwed. Fortunately, though, Asuka had one defense left in situations like this, when in doubt get mad.

"Ugh, I can't believe you were trying to insinuate that I would even be trying to listen to that pervert!" Asuka said in a tone that conveyed as much anger as she could without making her voice immediately audible to the still quietly talking Shinji. "I would never **ever** want to listen to what that pervert says or does." With a final huff, Asuka gathered her nearly forgotten bathing items and walked stiffly down the hallways and slammed the doorway to the bathroom shut behind her.

Misato could only look after her young charge and smile, before she pressed her ear to Shinji's door and tried to make out what it was he was saying. It had to important if it got Asuka's attention, after all.

The walk to school was a quiet one for both Shinji and his companion. Asuka dared not bring up anything lest she let it slip that she had heard snippets of his phone conversation earlier that morning, and Shinji for his part did not want to say anything lest he slip that he was planning something big. The last thing he needed was her pestering him about what it was and whom it was for and when it would be arriving. She had a nasty and scary habit of getting what she wanted out of him, though he was proud that he had at least managed to keep his mouth shut over that fiasco a few days ago with the rope and chair. She didn't find out anything that would kill him and for that, the young man was very proud of himself. 

Still, thinking ahead and what exactly Asuka was capable of, he should probably warn Touji and Kensuke that she might breach this subject with them in her typical loud and annoying fashion. They would at least find it pleasurable to prove her wrong. Shinji sighed, he secretly hoped that his red-haired roommate wouldn't take things too far, but judging from that manic gleam in her eye, she was definitely not planning to go along with his wishes.

Finally, after a few more minutes of interminable silence the pair arrived at their school and as with each morning broke off immediately to each find their respective friends. Shinji immediately spied his own group and made his way quickly over to them.

"Hey, Shinji, what's up?" Kensuke was the first person to speak as the young EVA pilot made his way over to where he and Touji were standing just outside of the door to their school, a little to the left of the entrance. Shinji smiled shyly in reply.

"Good morning, Ken, Touji," the young man nodded to each of his best friends and then settled into a quiet silence for a moment. He had to think of just how exactly he was going to break it to his friends that Asuka had gotten it into her head that they were the Panty Raider. With his luck they would take it quite well, after all they worshipped that character, and they would love for the opportunity to prove the perfect Demon Child wrong.

"Umm, I'm afraid I've got some bad news for both of you…" Shinji began, getting the full attention of his friends. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get any further than that.

"TOUJI SUZAHARAAAA!!!" The cry went up and despite the distance that had to be coming from, carried quite easily over the schoolyard. _Oh man, _Shinji thought to himself dismally as he instantly recognized the voice of the class representative. From the look of total and complete fear on his taller friend's face, Touji didn't take long in recognizing it as well. The EVA pilot hadn't counted on Asuka sharing the news to Hikari before she had made her general announcement. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"C-Class Rep!" Touji stuttered as he finally saw the thin brunette making her way quickly up to him. In a mere moments she was right in front of his face, and despite the centimeters he held over her, she still managed to instill him with fear.

"You, come with me," was all the girl said before she grabbed Touji's ear and began to pull him off to a quiet corner of the school yard, no doubt to maim the object of her affection and then bury him so nobody would ever be able to find him. Hell hath no fury next to the class rep mad. 

"Oh, man, whatever did you do?" Kensuke asked, momentarily not thinking about what he said when the opportunity to tease his friend came up. "I promise, we'll remember you with…owwwww!"

Kensuke soon found that he couldn't really speak anymore with the pain radiating from his ear. Apparently, the class rep was very good at using both of her hands. "You're coming too," the brunette muttered angrily and set an expression on her face that brooked no argument from the war otaku.

Shinji just lowered his head and shook it slightly. This was turning out to be completely not what he expected. He thought that Asuka would announce it to the rest of the class or worse, the school, to try and embarrass his friends. This…this scene was much, much worse. Quietly, he watched as his two best friends were unceremoniously and quite painfully by the look of it, led off to a quiet corner of the schoolyard.

"Humph, those perverts deserve everything Hikari gives them," a new voice from just behind Shinji made the boy turn sharply and come face to face with the evilly grinning visage of Asuka. "Come on, baka, we'll be late if we stay out here too much longer."

"Did you have to tell Hikari?" Shinji asked quietly, as the Asuka grabbed his arm and began leading him up the steps into the school. "I thought you were going to announce it or something, you know to everyone in the class."

"Goes to show how much you know," Asuka humphed again, then she turned around and gave him a critical eye. "I thought that while the public angle would have been much more satisfying, causing those two pain at the hands of the class rep would be much more fun to watch. I wouldn't count on them returning for the rest of the day, Hikari sounded pretty ticked."

Shinji sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that morning. Why did Asuka have to be so unpredictable? All he wanted to do was warn his friends. Mere moments later they arrived at their classroom and Asuka violently shoved him inside before anyone they knew could see that she had grabbed his hand to lead him into the school.

True to Asuka's words, just before the bell rang Hikari walked in dusting off her hands as if she had something unpleasant on them. Kensuke and Touji were no where to be seen. Shinji just added another sigh to his list and placed his head down quietly on his desk. All he could really do was hope that his friends weren't hurt too badly.

The morning went by pretty slowly for the bored young man as he fought to stay conscious much less pay attention to what the teacher was talking about. Just as Shinji was about to nod off, however, a familiar buzzing sound emanated from his school bag.

_Hmm, maybe another job? _Shinji thought to himself, no longer at the edge of sleep. Since he had bought the gift that he wanted just this morning, technically he could retire from the panty raiding business, and certainly he was going to make sure he did soon. With Asuka hot on his trail, for she would probably soon figure out that Ken and Touji were certainly **not** the panty raider, it was getting too dangerous to be in this business. _But, of course, I haven't announced my retirement yet._

That thought brought Shinji a brief amount of private amusement as he hit the proper button sequence on his laptop to bring up his encrypted chat screen. It was definitely time to think of retiring if he was beginning to enjoy this job a little too much. Sometime, it had become more than just a moneymaker for him, and that kind of worried the boy.

As soon as he entered his chatroom, Shinji's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. It seemed that he has a repeat customer. Something that he had not had ever since he had begun this job. But this guy paid him really well the last time, so he might as well hear him out, especially if the job this time was as easy as the last one was.

praider Ah, the mysterious Riakfan returns. It is good to see you again. What may I do for you?

riakfan Actually I thought that perhaps I may do something for you this time around.

Shinji raised his eyebrows a bit more. This was definitely getting interesting.

praider I'm listening.

riakfan I have a slight business proposition to make. You see, I'm in charge of a certain organization. An organization that desperately needs the skills such as the ones that your possess. I would love to meet you directly so that we may discuss what I'm sure can be a very beneficial compensation package for your services.

Shinji blinked. This...was…different. He had never had anyone suggest before that he could do the whole spy thing professionally. Truth be told he did like it, but what would kind of things might he be required to get if he went to work for this person? Suddenly the boy shook his head. That was impossible. He was an EVA pilot, he had to be ready at all times. There was no way that he could manage a super secretive job like this for very much longer as long as the angels were attacking, as much fun as he thought he would have, it was just impossible.

praider I wish I could take you up on your offer, but unfortunately I have a standing rule about never knowing who my customers are and them never knowing who I am. Things could get quite dangerous if they were to find out certain things.

Shinji smiled slightly. That was as good a reason as he could come up with. It was, after all completely true. If any of his clients found out that he was an EVA pilot it would be all too easy for someone to let that slip or even worse extort him or his friends. It was just the way things were.

riakfan That is truly a pity. If you ever change your mind, you know where to reach me.

_Hmm, he agreed a bit too easily for that._ Shinji thought, staring at the blank screen questioningly. _I wonder that was all about anyway? Oh well, best not to think about that right now._ Just as he thought that, the lunch bell rang and Shinji closed his laptop and gingerly got up from his seat. It would be a lonely, lonely lunch without his friends. Maybe he should try and find them and see if they need any medical help. With that the young man made his way out of the classroom and blended instantly in with the crowd as it milled around for the lunch break.

Rei Ayanami watched the figure of Shinji get up and walk out of the classroom. Outwardly, she showed no emotion whatsoever, business as usual for her, but inside was a completely different matter. Inside, Rei was smiling brightly with anticipation. She had been monitoring his connection like she always did. It seemed that he had been contacted again by a client, and while there had been that one strange blip on her watcher program indicating that something was tracing him, it only lasted for a few milliseconds. She supposed it was nothing much to concern herself with though, after all she would be able to follow him again tonight. 

Rei happily occupied herself with that thought for the entire lunch hour. Maybe tonight she would even be able to use one of those cool new spy gadgets she had bought.

Gendo Ikari closed his remote connection with the Magi with a grim smile. His tracer had worked like a charm, and while he had been initially surprised at who the panty raider was, he held it hidden well. Shinji was his son after all, it was nice to see some of his genes beginning to show through in the boy. If anything, the elder Ikari was…proud of his son. It showed real initiative to pull off something like his son had been doing for the past few months as well as he did. Maybe he underestimated the boy earlier?

Such was life however, and the elder man didn't spend too much time thinking of his mistake. He had to make sure phase two went into effect and the mere fact that his son was the panty raider made it even easier to initiate. He wanted those cool spy gadgets and by god he was going to get them, along with services of the panty raider himself.

"Ah, Yui," he said quietly to the ceiling. "You would be so proud of your son, now." Then he went back to the planning of phase two without another word.

That evening, Shinji was wandering the halls of Nerv alone. He didn't really feel like going home at the moment and besides, Misato was still working. His guardian had promised that they would go out to eat tonight because Asuka had gone over to Hikari's immediately after the synch tests were done for dinner. Misato liked doing strange things like waiting for Asuka to leave and then taking him to dinner. He supposed it was just as well anyway, he didn't really feel like dealing with her. Shortly after lunch began, Shinji had found his two friends slowly trying to claw themselves to the nurse's office with two fingers each between them that were still capable of movement. If he hadn't been so concerned with helping them he would have found the situation quite funny. He had really hoped that Hikari would just drop it after this point. Asuka had certainly gotten her revenge, even if it was on the wrong person.

Still Shinji couldn't help overhear the impetuous redhead muttering something about how she couldn't believe she had showed that picture to those perverts. That they probably had it saved somewhere on their computer. Something told the boy that he probably wouldn't be hearing the end of it for quite some time.

Silently, the young man leaned against the railing that he was currently standing near. Somehow whenever he had things on his mind and he began wandering the halls of Nerv he had always ended up in the EVA cages. This evening seemed to be no different, apparently as his gaze took in the hulking mass of his own unit-01, resting comfortably within the protective LCL that came up to its chin. Shinji's ears suddenly perked when he heard a muffled shuffling behind him and he began turning around to see if it was Misato, ready to go.

A voice however stopped him mid turn. It was a voice he instantly recognized.

"Shinji," Gendo uttered softly as he came up next to his son.

"Father," Shinji replied with no less steel in his voice. He had gotten better at imitating his father's voice lately.

"Somehow, I expected you to be here," Shinji's father continued as he echoed the younger man's position against the railing and stared up at the form of the evangelion.

"I see." Was all the younger Ikari answered with.

The apparent lack of interest in his son did not phase Gendo one bit. If anything it made him even prouder of the boy. He was truly learning. That fact made his decision even easier in his mind.

"I'm curious," Gendo finally said after a moment of silence spent regarding the smaller boy next to him. "It seems that your synch scores have gone up, even after the addition of your night job. I'm curious as to how you managed to keep them both separate.

Shinji's eyes widened imperceptibly at his father's admission. Outwardly he tried to remain calm and summed his best Ikari Business Mode face.

"Night job? I'm not sure I understand, father," Shinji intoned flatly, sparing a moment to look up at his father, directly in his eyes. Something he had never been able to do before, but he would have to celebrate this little victory another time. He had a secret to hide.

"I see. Do not worry, Shinji. If anything once I realized it was you I became quite proud of you. It seems you are finally growing up into a young man."

Shinji was no absolutely floored. Although the voice inflection was still flat and with the hint of steel that his father's voice always carried, the man just complimented him. His father…just complimented him!

_Stay calm, Shinji, stay calm. _The young man took a few breaths to collect himself, and swallowed his joy with difficulty. His father still knew about his secret, this was still bad news in his book.

"I was wondering if I could continue my proposition earlier and once again offer you a position along with me. You would still have to pilot but just think of it, you could actually continue what you were doing, but for more…legitimate dealings." Gendo finally spared another moment to gaze down at his son and gauge the young man's reaction. Still nothing readable, he really was learning.

_Earlier proposition…earlier proposition…oh my...god. My **father** is riakfan? That would make...oh...oh dear. That would mean that the 'riak' stands for Ritsuko Akagi. Oh god oh god I stole Ritsuko's panties! She wears leather panties?_ _No…no! Don't think about that! _Shinji stared up at the man next to him, completely and utterly shell shocked now, he wasn't even bothering to hide it anymore.

"You…you are 'riakfan'?" He asked his father shakily.

"Correct. But that is irrelevant." Gendo extended his hand out to Shinji, willing the boy to take it. He wanted those cool spy gadgets, dammit!

"Join me, Shinji. Join me and together we can overthrow SEELE and make our own destiny as father and son. Together we can bring back Yui."

Shinji backed up slowly, staring hard at his father's hand, the he raised his eyes back up to his fathers. Those cold pits of steel blue, the same color as his, behind amber colored glasses and Shinji could feel the fear beginning to return to him. Join his father…his father complimented him, was proud him. Join his father. Bring…back…mother? No! It wasn't real, it couldn't be real!

The young pilot began backing away from the man in front of him even faster. Gendo saw his position begin to slip. He had to try one least time.

"Join me, Shinji. It is your destiny," he repeated trying to close in on the boy as he backed away.

I'm sorry, Father I can't…I just can't!" Shinji turned and ran as fast as he could. He ran away, as far away from his father that his legs could take him without physically leaving the center of the Nerv complex. Ironically, he ran directly to Misato's office.

"There you are Shinji!" Misato called cheerfully, as he came within her sight from around the mounds of paperwork that always graced her desk. "Ready to go? I know this great little place just around the corner from our apartment. We can go teppan tonight if you want to?"

"Yes, let's go." Shinji calmed his mind for the moment. He was safe now. Misato would protect him. He slowly let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and willed his beating heart to slow. Yes, Misato would make sure he was all right.

Meanwhile, Gendo stood frozen in place until long after his son left his presence. Finally after a virtual eternity, the supreme commander of Nerv straightened and adjusted his glasses.

"Come so far, yet still falls short," the elder Ikari muttered and then with a push of his ever present glasses, he spared a look up towards unit-01 standing guard over the darkened cages before leaving. "I tried Yui, I tried."

Much later that evening, as Misato lay snoring over her latest victory against the Evil Six Pack of Yebisu, a shadowy figure moved among the shadows of the three-bedroom apartment. Shinji Ikari moved with the quietness of the wind as he maneuvered himself to the porch door without waking his sleeping guardian or the unconscious penguin beside her. It turned out that the young raider had received another job later that afternoon while he was away and the money promised to be good. This was the last job that he agreed to, as tomorrow, the Panty Raider was officially retiring from the business.

Silently, Shinji moved out onto the porch and looked down, looking for anyone out at this time of night that could spot his unique exit from the apartment. Spying no one, he adjusted his rope and jumped over the side of the railing, exhilarating once again in the feeling of free fall that rappelling over dark buildings gave him. Ate the end of his downward journey, Shinji hid his rope so he could easily find it later then disappeared into the darkness, unknowingly being tailed by a figure in black, and still another figure in hastily donned shoes and jacket.

Asuka Langley Sohryuu was officially confused. She hated that feeling. It seemed that just when she thought she was able to figure her roommate out, he went and did something like sneak out of the house in the middle of the night. Of course it had been just sheer luck that she was able to spot him, when she had gotten up to use the bathroom mere minutes ago, he had seemed to be able to hide himself well. What was even stranger about the situation was that he had not gone out the front door, as she had expected normal people did when they left the house, he had to go out and then right over the ledge of the back porch.

Asuka sighed and sucked in another lungfull of air as quietly as she could and then picked up her pace to keep up with the rapidly running black figure ahead of her. It seemed as if Shinji had been doing some illicit exercising as well. He was getting fast. No matter she was going to get to the bottom of this tonight, no matter what. With that resolve she stared hard at the running figure and continued to run after him into the night.

_Why is the second child involved in this?" _Rei thought to herself quietly as she padded silently after the red head, who was in turn chasing Shinji. She was fairly certain the pilot of Unit-02 did not know of the third child's activities at night, and would probably react badly should she find out. This thought process led to only one conclusion within Rei's mind, she must once again protect Ikari. 

Quieter than a running cat, Rei increased her pace slightly and turned off the main road that the pair ahead of her was following. She had to get ahead of them if her plan was to work. Quickly, Rei set her new course and waited for the right time to act.

Shinji, blissfully unaware of the scheming and plotting going on behind him, ran on into the night. The house that he was going after was actually quite close to his own apartment so he didn't have very far to run. Within ten minutes he was approaching the street that he needed to turn down in order to access his final job. Excitement coursed through his veins as he finally saw the street sign and made ready to turn down it. This was it, the Panty Raider's final raid. He wasn't completely sure that he could give it up, the fun, the excitement of sneaking around, the exercise from all the running and climbing he had done over the last four months. But it had to end sometime, Asuka was getting to close, his father knew his secret, things just weren't the same anymore. He knew he must end it after this job or face being caught.

The young man was so caught up, however, in the elation of this being his final job he did not notice the figure approaching rapidly from the right. Within moments the two collided and bounced off of each other. Shinji reeled from the contact and twisted sharply to avoid spraining his ankle or worse. How could he have been so careless? Hopefully the person wouldn't say much to him and he could be on his way as soon as possible. 

With an apology on his lips Shinji looked towards the figure that just collided with him and stared. They were already getting up and beginning to run to opposite direction that he should go. Before he could say anything the figure, identically dressed in black, strangely enough, was on its feet and running away. Shinji openly spared the back of the fleeing figure a few seconds of confused regard before he turned around and began running the opposite direction, completely unaware of the effect that collision had with another figure following him.

"Shiest," Asuka swore under her breath when Shinji collided with the figure. "That moron is such a klutz." In stopping, though Asuka took her eyes off of Shinji for just a few seconds, enough for her to find a hiding spot just in case he turned around. This momentary break was just enough for the switch to occur, and when Asuka looked back there were two identically dressed figures running in opposite directions.

"Shiest again!" Asuka swore, a little louder this time. "Which one is that stupid idiot?" She spent only a small amount of time regarding one or the other retreating figures before making up her mind which to follow. They would disappear shortly and if she hadn't made a quick choice she would lose both of them and go home empty handed, a case Asuka felt was not an option. Quietly, she began running after the fleeing figure from the left, her expression set in an even more angry countenance than before. Shinji would pay for this little jaunt later.

Through some strange luck, Asuka chose Rei to run after, leaving Shinji to go on with his business.

"Got them!" Shinji whispered to himself happily as he shoved the target into his backpack and made for the door he had entered through just a few minutes before. Without another word he reset the alarm and the made sure the doors were once again locked before he jumped off the slightly raised porch and began to make his way back home. It was fitting, in his opinion that the final job went off without a hitch. It couldn't have ended more perfectly. Tomorrow, the Panty Raider chatroom would be closed for good and he could go into retirement without another worry. His father would never reveal his secret, and Asuka would never again hear about the panty Raider's exploits. She would go on believing that she had stopped Touji and Kensuke from performing their 'job' and he would have a marvelous birthday present for her. 

Shinji returned home as fast as possible, and happier than he had ever been that he could remember, he tossed off his clothes, changed and sank into his sheets.

An hour later, a very tired Asuka entered the apartment breathing heavily. She had just been led on a midnight tour of every place in the entire vicinity, and she was **not** a happy camper. She had seen Shinji shuffle back up the rope to the porch and was determined to catch him in the act of changing and really rip him a new one for this little quest of his. No one sane just got up and went for a little jaunt through the neighborhood. No one!

Angrily, the simmering red head shuffled over to her roommate's door and without any advanced warning through the door open, fully expecting a half naked Shinji that she could berate and scream at until she felt better. So it was with endless surprise that she found the boy silently sleeping within his covers. Apparently having been there for quite some time.

Asuka stood at the threshold of the boy's door for a few moments, absolutely stupefied. She had sworn she saw him exit out of the glass doors and then slip over the side of the porch. She had never bothered to check his room to see if it really was him.

"I must be delirious," She muttered under her breath before she closed the door and wandered back to her own room in a complete daze. "Abso-fraggin'-lutely delirious." With that she slammed her door shut and dropped her jacket, not even bothering with her shoes as she fell across her bed and went to sleep for the second time that evening.

Asuka completely missed the black clad figure slip over the porch edge, out from one of the plant shadows and then begin running back down the street in the general direction Rei Ayanami lived.

The weeks passed for Shinji and Asuka without any further incident. No one heard from the Panty Raider ever again, though several people still tried desperately to get a hold of them, he was indefinitely retired from the business. Soon after that final night, Touji and Kensuke were released from the hospital and were currently trying to work themselves back into the good graces of the class representative, complete with full arm casts.

Asuka's birthday snuck up on everyone quietly and without much fanfare. As much as she liked to call attention to herself, Asuka wanted her celebration to be small, with only her friend, Hikari, Shinji and Misato. Grudgingly, she allowed Touji, Kensuke, and Rei to tag along when Misato insisted that the party be just a tad larger. Still, everyone seemed to have had a great time, as evident by the large mess that she was currently in the middle of cleaning up, along with Shinji after everyone had gone either home or as in the case of Misato, passed out.

"Hey Asuka?" Shinji asked shyly, stopping from his job at sweeping the floor to regard his companion across the room.

"Hmmm?"

"Umm, I know that I got you a small card and birthday present before but, you see…I kind of got you something else, and I guess now would sort of be a good time to give it to you."

Asuka stopped picking up the various plates and cups from her corner of the room and stared curiously at Shinji.

"You got me something else? It better not be anything perverted, idiot. Because my answer is and always will be no way."

"Umm, no. I think you'll like it." Shinji replied, then smiled thinly. "I'll just go get it now."

Moments after disappearing into his room, Shinji once again came forward, this time lugging a sizeable box that was nicely wrapped and contained a card with Asuka's name on it.

Asuka, despite her curiosity, managed to hide her excitement well. She liked big gifts. They usually meant a little more money spent on them.

"I'm surprised that you didn't give this too me earlier," she commented as Shinji handed her the box and quietly wished her happy birthday, yet again..

"Well, I didn't want to make it a big deal. I thought this should be something that you and I…" Shinji paused, only now aware that Asuka was still staring at him. He never truly realized how pretty her eyes were when they weren't mad at something. "Th...that you and I could share." He finished, taking an audible gulp of air. The butterflies in his stomach were beginning to get unbearable.

Asuka, for her part, only gave the third child a quizzical stare before gingerly setting down the box and opening the wrapped present. _What in the world could that idiot be blabbering about, now?_ _Something that he and I could share, as if! But still, it was rather nice to get this present from him I wonder why he decided to give it to me now?_ In a few short minutes, Asuka found out.

The wrapping paper gave way to a cardboard box that was strangely covered with the German word for 'fragile' written on all four sides. The box gave way with some difficulty as the tape was well placed, but eventually, the ever more curious redhead got it open. Once the box was cleared however, she froze.

Resting comfortably within the packing peanuts was a violin case, a beautifully designed one as well. It's soft leather skin spoke of age and antiquity, but was no less oiled than the day it had left the shop. It had obviously been loved very greatly in its lifetime. Asuka turned to Shinji and raised her eyebrows, "How did you know I played the violin?"

Shinji just shook his head and smiled in that annoying shy way. "Just open the case."

Shrugging off the attitude that she would normally use when Shinji was acting funny, Asuka decided to be nice for just this once and comply with his request. Slowly, she found the zipper that was hidden underneath a small flap of leather and ran it along the length of its path. The case opened easily and with no hint of sound at all, the sign of well oiled joints, but Asuka never even noticed that fact as the image of a violin filled her vision.

It was old. That was her first surmise as she expertly lifted the musical instrument out from its protective casing and held it delicately. The wood finish was absolutely expertly done and in the low light of the room, it shone with an almost red tint, the fine grain of the wood a testament to its quality. Still something that Asuka could not quite shake was a feeling of familiarity with this particular violin. With shaking hands that weren't quite dictated with her mind, she flipped the instrument over and looked down towards the right hand corner. There, written in black permanent ink was a name. A name she knew well for she had heard it all throughout her youth, someone she had never known personally but through stories, pictures and recordings was able to follow that person's journeys as if she were right along with the woman.

"Anja Zeppelin Sohryu," her grandmother from her father's side. The entire reason she began playing the violin in the first place.

Asuka sat, stunned from this revelation for a moment before Shinji entered her vision and sat in front of her, the ever present shy smile upon his lips. "I heard you playing one night, really late," he began in answer to her silent question. "Later, when I was looking for laundry I found your violin sitting on your bed. I could hardly believe it was yours, it was small and scratched. I thought you would have a better one."

"I've had that violin since I began playing," Asuka said tonelessly, not even thinking about the fact that she was revealing something of her past to him. "I guess I never had any time to get another one. But how did you find this one?"

"I have a few people whom I talk with on occasion. They were friends of my music teacher before I came here, for some reason after I moved a few kept in touch with me." Shinji looked down and blushed. "After I saw your violin, I sort of…well I started asking around. I got referred to this one gentleman's site and we began talking. Somehow, along the way I mentioned your name and how I wanted to give you a violin. Next thing I know he showed me this," Shinji pointed a thing finger towards the case and instrument that was still delicately clutched to Asuka's chest.

"With you being who you are and everything, he gave me a very good deal on the violin." That was no lie, the violin was easily worth twice what he paid for it, but she would never have to know that.

"I…I don't know what to say Shinji," Asuka quietly lifted her head and looked at her fellow pilot in his eyes. It was possibly the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her, and this spineless wimp did it. How did he manage to blow every opinion she ever had of him out of the water, and yet still behave in an utterly weak fashion to the general public at large? Who was this boy?

"Just say you like it. That's all I need to hear." Shinji smiled. It was truth, one hundred percent. All he needed to hear was that she liked her gift and he could be happy.

"I...I…love it, Shinji. Thank you." Asuka leaned over and let her feelings fall aside, just for this night, just for this moment. Tomorrow she would go back to normal, and everything will be fine, but for tonight she wanted to show to this confusing boy that she was truly and utterly thankful. With Shinji blushing at the close proximity, but holding his ground, Asuka took his head in her hands and lightly kissed his cheek.

"Goodnight, Shinji. We can finish cleaning in the morning." With that, the young German got up and placed the violin back in it's place and padded off to her bedroom but not before she turned around and gave the bewildered third child a soft smile. Then she was gone, vanishing into her bedroom with a silent sound of a door closing.

Shinji just stared at the spot where he had last seen Asuka, then slowly raised his right hand to his cheek. It was still warm with the furious blush that graced his cheeks. She had kissed him, she liked her gift…a million things flew through the boy's mind within the space of a second, but somehow through it all he knew it would only be a one night thing. Tomorrow everything would go back to normal but for one thing: he would have this moment. This one perfect moment in which made all his months of raiding panty drawers worth it. 

It was enough for him.

****

End

__

Author's Endnotes: Yatta! I finally finished this thing! It was a long time coming, I know. Probably lot longer than it should have taken but I wanted to make sure that I said everything I wanted to say in this fic. And yes, before you ask, it was my original intention to begin this work with humor and end on a serious note. I'm afraid some may not like this ending, feeling that it was perhaps not within the spirit of the story, but I'm afraid that this is where it all ends. This was what I wanted to say, and I have said it in the best way I could. I really want to thank my pre-reader, Dante, who has been here from the beginning and has always encouraged me to keep the good ideas and trash the bad ones. Without him, this story would have been a **lot** different, and certainly not as good, in my opinion. Domo Arigato, Dante-san! For everything.

I meant for this story to incorporate everything. I hope that as an author I made you laugh, that I made you say 'awwww', but most of all I hope that I have created a story that was as entertaining to read as it was to write. As always, comments are especially welcome. Please be on the look out for my next work, tentatively entitled "Kindred Souls" to make an appearance sometime soon. I really have to think about Infinite Wills though before I seriously consider another involved project. With that said, I will bid you all happy reading, and happy writing. Please continue to write all the entertaining stories that have kept me inspired and enraptured for this past year!

--Garasu

P.S.- When my site, Seishoku Garasu, becomes operational within the next week or so along with this story I will be making available certain site exclusives including: pre-reader inspired outtakes from the previous chapters, various alternate endings that I have come up with and written during the making of this story, and the alternate third chapter that I alluded to. Be sure to check in with me at www.omicronceti.com_ soon!_


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